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ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY 
SCHOOL 



BY 

WALTER ]^ARNES, A. M., 

OEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, 
GLENVILLE, WEST VIRGINIA 



CHICAGO NEW YORK 

ROW, PETERSON & COMPANY 






Copyright, 1913, 

BY 

ROW, TETERSON & CO. 



©CI.A351i22 
tU)f 



TO MY FIRST AND MOST SUCCESSFUL 
TEACHER OF ENGLISH — MY MOTHER 



PREFACE 

This book is an expansion of a series of articles on 
"English in the Country School," which appeared in the 
West Virginia Educator. As the work progressed, it be- 
came evident from the scores of letters and inquiries 
which poured in upon me that the subject was a timely 
one. Finally it was suggested that perhaps the ideas ex- 
pressed in the articles should, after some elaboration and 
certain slight changes, be issued in book form, to the end 
that country teachers in other States than West Virginia 
might receive whatever benefit such a theme and treat- 
ment might bestow. 

The author wishes to express his thanks to the West 
Virginia Educator, both for printing the articles and for 
allowing the material to be used for this book. Thanks 
are due also to the many country teachers who have, by 
inquiries and suggestions, turned my attention to certain 
topics that had been overlooked or inadequately treated. 

To the three persons who so kindly lent their time and 
their talents to a close and critical examination of the 
material for the book: Prof. John Harrington Cox, of 
West Virginia University; Mr. L. J. Hanifan, Rural 
Supervisor of West Virginia; and Miss Ina Barnes, Pri- 



PREFACE 

mary Supervisor of Public Schools at Williamson. W. 
Va. — to these three, I, as well as those who receive any 
good from this volume, owe a debt of gratitude. Cer- 
tainly a large share of what value ''English in the Coun- 
try School" may possess is due to them. To some of my 
colleagues for many valuable suggestions, to the pub- 
lishers who have generously donated many books to my 
use, and to my wife for help and encouragement at every 
stage of the work, my thanks are here publicly expressed. 
Neither should I neglect to acknowledge the invaluable 
assistance I have received from the dozens of books on 
English which I have carefully studied in the preparation 
of the material for this book. Sometimes I have given 
credit; but often, no doubt, I have received a helpful 
hint from some source which I have been unable to trace. 

W. B. 
Glenville, W. Va., March 15. 19 13. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction . = ....„.„ .o - . o ......,.» o o 9 

CHAPTER 

One Reading o .... . 17 

Two Literature in Lower Grades . . 42 

Three Literature in Upper Grades. 81 

Four The School Library 129 

Five Spelling 161 

Six Grammar 176 

Seven Language 188 

Eight Composition Work 200 

Nine Means of Self-Education, and Bibliogra- 
phies 253 

A Hundred Books for a Rural School Library 279 



ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

INTRODUCTION 

"English in the Country School" is an attempt par- 
tially to solve some of the problems connected with the 
study and teaching of English in country schools. Of 
course, I do not hope to cultivate exhaustively this wide 
held ; I hope only to break ground somewhat and perhaps 
scatter a few seeds broadcast over the upturned soil. 
^^'hat I shall say, however — to abandon the figure — bears 
directly on the country school teacher in his efforts to 
give instruction in the most important of the common 
school branches. 

That English is indeed the most important study in the 
common schools I do not for a single moment doubt. 
Consider. It includes reading, spelling, language work, 
composition work, literature, grammar, writing, talking 
— rather important activities those in school or out. To 
be sure, all the common school branches are essential; 
but most of them arc branches. English is the trunk 
of the tree — the trunk, which is rooted deep in the 
soil, to which all the branches are vitally connected, and 
through which courses the life-giving sap. The child 

9 



10 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

cannot readily learn arithmetic, for example, unless he 
reads ^\■ell. or history, imless he has had hrought to his 
attention the correlatini^- hterature. lie cannot recite 
without talking- or Nvriting. English, in its various phases, 
is the one study with which every other study in tlii? 
school curriculum correlates. It is the most important 
of the formal subjects, of the disciplinary subjects, of the 
cultural subjects. It is essential alike to the abecedarian 
and to the college graduate. It brings to us the richest 
vicarious experiences and teaches tis to express otir own. 
first-hand experience. 

*'\\'ell. suppose I gxant." interposes some reader, "that 
English is the most ituportant study in the course. Surely 
the subject has been adequately treated. 'Of making 
ntany books there is no end" in this matter." But Eng- 
lish in the coiuitr}- school — that is another matter, quite 
another matter. Many of the problems that are set the 
country school teacher are not those the city teacher has 
to solve: the children in his care come from environment 
different, and should be educated for environment dilYer- 
ent from that of city children : and, moreover, the rural 
teacher himself is quite a distinct person from the urban 
teacher — distinct in preparation, in experience, in per- 
sonality. 

Furthennore. the text-books in the various mother 
tongue studies should not be — and some day will not be — 
the siime for countrv schools and citv schools. The 



INTRODUCTION 11 

autlior of a series of language books recently recognized 
this fact when he stated that his series was not to be 
considered as a possible text for all the schools in a cer- 
tain state, because "it was designed especially for city 
schools and was therefore not adapted to the needs of 
country schools/' I believe that, while the country teacher 
can derive much good from the study of books that deal 
with the general problems concerning the teaching of Eng- 
lish, "^ and while his pupils may profitably use text-books 
which were designed for city schools — still both the coun- 
try teacher and the country pupil need guide-books and 
texts written especially for them. So far as I know, no 
such books exist. "English in the Country School" there- 
fore is a new book, and should, if it accomplishes its aim, 
be a useful volume to the rural teacher. 

I have stated that the problems growing out of the 
teaching of English in country schools are not the same 
as those in city schools. Let me expand that thought so 
as to justify this new book on English, and also to show^ 
clearly what are the problems that must be solved, par- 
tially at least, in this book. The general problem in the 
country is different in seven important respects : 

English in Country vs. City ScJiools 

I. In the preparation of the teachers. Yevy few 
country teachers in the United States are as well pre- 
* A list of such books is given on pages 264-271. 



12 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

pared as city teachers to give instruction in English. 
Comparatively few rural teachers have had much pro- 
fessional education, or. in fact, academic education. 
Moreover, country teachers do not serve as long, on the 
average, as city teachers; they often quit teaching after 
three or foiu" years, just when they are becoming pro- 
ficient. Of course, one may say that they sJiouId have 
adequate preparation and should continue longer in the 
profession ; but the fault is not theirs. The salary paid 
the country teacher in many sections of the United States 
hardly justifies him in preparing himself to work in rural 
schools or in continuing in the profession longer than he 
absolutely must. "Only 46.3 per cent of the people in the 
United States live in the cities, but 54.5 per cent of the 
amount paid teachers is paid in cities."* The natural con- 
sequence of this difference in salary is that when an am- 
bitious young countr)' boy or girl prepares himself to 
teach, bv attending a normal or high school, he betakes 
himself forthwith to the city, thus draining the rural 
districts of some of its best talent. But whatever the 
cause, or whatever the eft'ect, the fact remains that the 
average rural teacher is not as well prepared to teach the 
English branches as is the city teacher. 

2. In the supervision of teachers. The city teacher has 
over her a superintendent or principal, and perhaps a 
supervisor of her department. These give immediate 

* Lfnited States Bureau of Education. Bulletin No. 493. 
page 19. 



INTRODUCTION 13 

tr 

thought and attention to the problems that may arise con- 
cerning the Enghsh work. But the country teacher has 
Httle guidance of this sort. Even if district supervision 
is maintained, the country teacher is not directed as well 
as his city colleague. 

3. In library facilities. The country school is not as 
well supplied with libraries as is the city school. Now, 
as a library is the laboratory apparatus for the teaching of 
English, difference in this regard is a matter of tremen- 
dous importance. 

4. In regard to the time for English work. In the 
first place the school term is much shorter in the country.* 
In the second place, even if the country school were in 
session as long as the city school, the teacher, having all 
grades under his direction and consequently more classes, 
has less time to devote to any one subject and to any one 
pupil. This makes a great difference in the work in 
English. 

5. In the grading of pupils. In city schools the course 
of study is more definitely outlined, and the children of a 
certain grade have had more definite work in the previ- 
ous years. Thus the teacher deals with pupils having 
much of the same known preparation. In country schools. 



* In 1909 ihe average number of days school was kept was 184.3 
for city schools and only 137.7 for rural schools, and the term 
"rural" includes all so-called "cities" and incorporated places of 
2,500 or less — which would mean that the difference in length of 
term between city schools and real one-room country schools is 
greater than that given above. 



14 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

however, the constant changing" of teachers interferes Avith 
snch definite grading and promotion, Moreover, the 
crowded program often makes it necessary to combine 
pupils of different ages in one class for purposes of con- 
venience. This is. of course, a serious hindrance. 

6. In the nature of the pupils. Every person is the 
product of two forces : heredity and environment ; and 
modern science is showing. I think, that the latter is much 
more important than the former. The country child, 
having environment and experience so different from the 
city child, soon develops a dift'erent personalitv — different 
in many ways : in habits of thought and expression, in 
physical and intellectual qualities. The country child is 
inclined to be more unresponsive, more serious and slow, 
more inexpressive, more practical and matter-of-fact. In 
solidity and steadiness he is usually superior to his city 
cousin ; but he needs to be awakened emotionally, he needs 
to be quickened in desire and power of expression. This 
means that the course of study for the rural school must 
be widely dift'erent from that in city school, and that 
especially must the teaching of the English subjects be 
different. 

7. In the aim of the schooling. One of the perplexing 
modern problems in American life is how to keep a fair 
percentage of the country boys and girls in the country. 
This is not a problem that can be solved entirely by the 
school; but the school should and can do a large share. 



INTRODUCTION 15 

h has been often pointed out in the last few years that 
the text-books used in country schools are full of material 
for city children, thus unconsciously but forcibly direct- 
ing" the mind of country boys and girls away from the 
farm to urban life. We are at last beginning to perceive 
that, if we are to prevent the brightest and most am- 
bitious young folks from deserting the farm and seeking 
their fortunes in the big city, we must make farm life 
attractive. And the proper place and time to begin is 
during childhood and in the country schoolhouse. We 
can so shape the work in arithmetic that the country boy 
will be set ciphering and thinking about the pecuniary 
problems of the farm. And we can so shape the work in 
the English branches that we can center attention on the 
desirable phases of country life, on its manifold advan- 
tages over existence in a city. 

How these disadvantages can be obviated and these 
advantages utilized is to be discussed in the chapters 
of "English in the Country School." 

This volume is designed for all teachers in rural 
schools, whether in a one-room building or a consoli- 
dated school. To be sure, the problems involved by the 
presence of all grades in one room, by lack of time, and 
bv the absence of close supervision have been largely 
solved by consolidation ; but the other problems for which 
a partial solution is attempted in this book can well be 
studied by the teacher in the consolidated school. The 



16 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

questions concerning the amount and kind of reading, of 
composition work, and of language work, etc. — these 
questions are as pertinent to one country teacher as an- 
other. Rural schools throughout the United States are 
so diversified that no book can hope to be completely ap- 
plicable to any one school. It has seemed best therefore 
in this volume to write more directly to the teacher in the 
one-room school without adequate supervision. The fact 
that I do not argue for a closer supervision and the con- 
solidation of schools wherever feasible is not to be taken 
as evidence that I do not favor such progressive action. 
As a matter of fact, I believe we will solve the problems 
of the country school only when we have passed beyond 
the era of the isolated, one-room building. 



V^ 



CHAPTER ONE 

READING 

Many of us learned to read by what is known as the 
Alphabet method, and a few of us are doubtless teaching 
by the same method. Following this process, we re- 
quire the child to learn the alphabet, then teach him how to 
put the letters together to form words. That is, after 
the young child has learned his a-b-c's, we show him that 
"c," "a," "t" placed together in a word spell "cat," which 
stands for the animal of that name. Of course, children 
can learn to read by that method — we did it, and thou- 
sands are doing it now. But it has many defects — so 
many that it has been abandoned by all trained teachers. 
What are some of these defects?* 

Defects of the Alphabet Method 

I. It is slow. Doubtless you have had pupils that 
could scarcely learn their a-b-c's by the end of the first 
year. And that is not the worst of the matter. When a 
child has learned his letters he has not learned to read; 
he must then be showed how to put these letters together 
to make words. That would not be very difficult if the 

* Those who have already abandoned the alphabet method 
will do well to omit pages 17-31. 

17 



18 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

letters were pronounced the same by themselves and in 
words. But they are not. We pronounce "b" "bee," "c" 
''see," "d" "dee." etc. ; but when we use these letters in 
words we articulate only the consonant sounds, leaving 
off the "ee." We do not, for instance, pyoiiouncc "cat" 
"see-a-tee"; we merely utter together the three sounds. 
Just how difficult it is for the child to learn a new word 
by the alphabet method you can see by observing how he 
often has to struggle and strain. He comes to a word 
that he cannot make out; you advise him to spell it, and 
he calls the letters one at a time, but even then he cannot 
recognize and pronounce the word, familiar though it 
may be when spoken, because the noincs of the letters do 
not give him enough clue to the soiiiids. In short, the 
method does not help him to acquire new words rapidly 
and easily : it is a slow method. And we make it slower 
than it need be, because we insist that the hapless urchin 
learn the letters in a fixed order : "a," then "b," then "c." 
on to "x-y-z-and-so- forth." This takes time and is of 
no possible value until the child is old enough to consult 
a dictionary. All this makes learning to read by the a-b-c 
method a slow and difficult process. 

2. It is artificial. Of course, it serins natural to those 
who are acquainted with this method only ; but when 
once we have seen a better method in operation we realize 
that the old way is artificial. Learning to read is acquir- 
ing the power to recognize thought expressed in written 



READING 19 

or printed Tx'ords and sentences. No letter expresses 
thought (except "a," the article; "O," the interjection, 
and *'I," the pronoun) : it takes a complete word or a sen- 
tence. If a mother should try to teach her baby to talk 
by beginning with sounds, we should call her method 
artificial; it is natural to start with words and proceed to 
sentences as soon as possible. It is just as artificial for a 
teacher to teach her young pupil to read by beginning with 
letters instead of words and sentences. A child learns a 
new word in speech as a zvord, not as a combination 
of sounds; he should learn a new word in reading as far 
as possible, as a word, not as a combination of letters. 

3. It is unrelated to life, because it is artificial. The 
word "hen" is recognizable as the symbol of a familiar 
idea; but "h," "e," "n" represent nothing in any child's 
experience. Every country child has seen a hen, but no 
child has seen an "h," or an "e," or an "n" — they don't 
exist, in earth, fire, air, or water. 

4. It ignores the process of apperception, which is the 
process of "acquiring new ideas by means of old ideas 
already in the minds of the pupils," (McMurry.) When 
we employ the alphabet method, we fail to make the 
best use of the experience of the child, we fail to begin 
with what he knows, and lead to what he does not know. 

5. It tends to a neglect of phonics, of sounds. To be 
sure, it is possible to take up the sounds, even though one 
uses the alphabet method; but it is rarely done. Now, 



20 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the child must have a knowledge of the elementary sounds 
in order to make use of the diacritical marks in his spell- 
ing book or in the dictionary. We know by experience 
how difficult it is to make a self-conscious boy or girl in 
the fourth or fifth grade articulate the sounds of the let- 
ters.. It appears foolish to him — and a country child is 
peculiarly sensitive to anything that makes him ridiculous. 
If you train the child in the first grade to utter the sounds, 
he soon forms a habit that seems quite natural. Then 
when you are ready to initiate him into the mysteries of 
the diacritical marks, your task and his is easy and pleas- 
ant. 

6. In general, it does not produce as good readers. 
Have you ever noticed a boy or girl as far along as the 
eighth grade, or even a grown man or woman, moving 
the lips while reading to himself? And have you ever 
noticed a person limping, halting along through a bit 
of oral reading, compelled to stop now and then to spell 
out an unfamiliar word? Have you ever tried to account 
for it ? It is partly . because the person has not read 
enough for the process to become easy, but it is largely 
because he learned to read by the alphabet method. If 
one learns to read by spelling out the words as he comes 
to them he may never overcome the habit. It can be 
overcome by dint of much insistent training, but it takes 
much of the country teacher's sorely needed time. 

7. For all these reasons learning to read by this 



READING 21 

method is uninteresting. We complain a good deal that 
our children quit school before they have obtained all that 
the school can give them. Though, for several reasons, 
this complaint is not so common in the country as in the 
city, yet about one-half of the country children leave 
school by the end of th^e sixth grade. Why do they leave? 
Usually because they find life outside the schoolroom 
more interesting than life in the schoolroom, A little 
fellow comes to your school — some of you call him up to 
your side two or three times a day, whenever you can 
snatch a few moments from your other work, and make 
him plod through his letters. Then you send him back 
to his seat — and there he sits, with nothing to occupy 
his mind except occasional admonitions to be quiet. In- 
teresting? I, for one, do not blame any sensible child 
for letting his mind run home to where something real, 
something interesting is going on — where he can crack 
walnuts, or build a snow man, or play in the hay-mow, or 
hunt eggs, or even help build fences. Of course, I am 
not blaming all the child's lack of interest in school on the 
method by which he is taught to read; but much of the 
blame should be laid upon this, since so much depends 
upon it. As the Committee of Fifteen has well said: 
'Tnasmuch as reading is the first of the scholastic arts, it 
is interesting to note that the whole elementary course 
may be described as an extension of the process of learn- 
ing the art of reading." If the child learns to read by 



22 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

a method which is easy, pleasant, and interesting, he will 
be able to master all his other subjects more readily ; then 
school life will be. in general, interesting and attractive. 

TJic Xc:>.' Mrfliod of TcacJiijig Rcadi}ig 

Psychology (^ which is a scientific study of the laws of 
human personality) and pedagogy (which is a logical 
application of those laws to the teaching process) have 
together worked out a much better method of teaching 
children to read than this old one. This is not the place 
for a detailed explanation of the modern method. All I 
can do is to state the important features of it and refer 
you to books which discuss it in full. (See pages 264-5.) 
It is often called the "Combination" method, sometimes 
the "W'ord-Sentence-Phonic" method, because it is a com- 
bination of these three dift'erent methods. Briefly, here 
is the process : 

I. The teacher holds up before her pupils, or calls up 
before their minds, some object like a ball and asks them 
to name it. Then she writes or prints the word on the 
board, explaining that that is the written expression of 
the idea "ball." Other words she takes up. or "develops." 
in the same way. training the children to recognize each 
word and to distinguish between them. Some primary 
teachers contend that very little drill is necessary, if the 
original impression upon the child's mind is deep: and 
tliat seems plausible, though I have never obsen-ed any 



READING 23 

primary teacher, however, skillful, who did not need to 
do some drilling, some repeating. 

2. After teaching the word the teacher uses it in a 
brief sentence, such as, "Roll the ball," "Spin the top." 
By drills and frequent reviews the child is speedily taught 
to recognize these combinations of words as representa- 
tives of ideas, and thus learns to read sentences as wholes. 
Many teachers use imperative sentences containing action 
wo;"ds, performing the actions mentioned as they teach 
the sentences. 

3. The teacher, while training the children to recog- 
nize single words and to read entire sentences, also drills 
in phonics. By grouping words such as "ball," "tall," 
"fall"; "dog," "log," "hog"; "cat," "rat," "bat," and 
having the child articulate each sound, a clever teacher 
soon brings the little learners to a point where they can 
analyze a new word, can pronounce it and recognize it, 
just from uttering in rapid succession the sounds that 
compose the word. Of course, since the English lan- 
guage is not phonetic (that is, words are not always pro- 
nounced as spelled), the results of the phonic teaching 
are not ideal; but anyone who has never watched work 
of this sort will be surprised at the ease with which chil- 
dren learn to discriminate between the different sounds of 
the same letter, and at the readiness with which they 
"sound" words instead of spelling them. The simpler dia- 
critical markings are introduced rather early, so that the 



24 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

child learns to pronounce a word even when the pro- 
nunciation is quite irregular. 

4. Pupils acquire the alphabet names of the letters 
'incidentally, or learn them rapidly with a little special 
effort after they have attained the power to use phonics 
and to read. The names of the letters need not be learned 
until the child is ready for oral spelling, which, according 
to this plan, is not taken up so early as under the older 
method. The order of the letters may be taught the 
children by means of an alphabet song, which is to be 
found in many first readers. 

This is a brief exposition of a very difficult subject, 
but at least it shows the outline of the method. Hardly 
any two teachers follow the same order, unless they are 
working under very strict, fixed supervision. Many begin 
wath sentences ; others with words ; some introduce phonics 
at once, others later. In fact, it is one of the many advan- 
tages of the method that it allows and encourages plenty 
of originality on the part of the teacher. But however 
the method is varied, the alphabet names always bring up 
the rear. 

Advantages of the Combination Method 

The combination method is undoubtedly much better 
than the a-b-c. It avoids all the defects of the latter; it 
gives the child more ability to recognize new words; it 
encourages him by enabling him to read alrhost immedi- 



READING 25 

ately ; it makes the process of reading a process of thought- 
getting, since it emphasizes the idea rather than the form ; 
it teaches the child to read more rapidly, more easily, and 
more expressively. And because it is a better method it 
is now used by all trained teachers. 

Why the New Method Is Not More Generally Used in 
the Country 

"But if it be a better method, why is it not being used 
everywhere, in the 'little red schoolhouse' as well as in 
the great brick structure of the city?" It is being used 
more and more. I have no statistics to prove this, but 
educational journals from all over the United States bear 
me out in my assertion. And wherever it is installed and 
given a fair trial it demonstrates its superiority to the 
alphabet method. "Then why is it not being introduced 
more rapidly?" Here are some reasons: 

I. The average rural community, being extremely con- 
servative, is averse to adopting anything new — new meth- 
ods of teaching reading, new farm machinery, new ideas 
in politics. Thoughtful persons have observed that the 
introduction of agriculture into the course of study for 
rural schools has met with its fiercest opposition among 
country people, the very class that the new study was de- 
signed most to benefit. The attitude of some country 
men toward any modern process or invention or method is 
either indifference or active hostility. I have heard farm- 



26 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ers say that they saw no use in a silo — "^^Iv father didn't 
have one, and I've got along without one all my life." 
And I have heard farmers and country teachers say : 
"I don't know about this newfangled way of teaching 
reading. / learned my a-b-c's first, and / learned to read 
all right." An up-to-date country teacher stated in an 
institute not long since that he had nearly lost his posi- 
tion the preceding winter because he had taught beginners 
to read by the new method. Of course, this is all wrong. 
The fact that our fathers, or even that we formerly cut 
the meadow with a scythe, is no reason that ivc should 
not noiv use a mowing machine. This conservatism 
among country folk is, except when extreme, one of the 
most valuable elements in American life. City dwellers 
are too prone to be swept off their feet by some strong 
current, some fad. some "new thought," "new healing." 
The sane deliberation of country people serves as an ad- 
mirable check on the rash radicalism of city folk; it is a 
ponderous, slow-moving balance wheel, without which 
the complicated machinery of the government would rush 
to speedy ruin. It is, I repeat, a necessary quality except 
zvhcn extreme: and extreme it often is. But it is a bias 
of mind, a fundamental characteristic of country people, 
especially of the older generation ; it cannot be removed 
by impatience, by ridicule. "All the natural forces of 
country life," says IMiss Mabel Carney in her compre- 
hending and comprehensive book. "Country Life and 



READING 27 

the Country School," "seed-time and harvest, seasonal 
change, and the annual cycle — tend toward quiet and 
routine, and so impress themselves upon the sub-con- 
sciousness of a people governed by them that they cannot 
fail to influence character." There can be no doubt that 
the new method of teaching reading is much superior to 
the old method; but we must be diplomatic, patient and 
reasonable in advocating its adoption. And when once 
it is adopted and found good, we shall call down bless- 
ings upon that same conservatism which will then cleave 
to the new with as much tenacity as it formerly clung 
to the old. 

2. The new method, though it is a time-saver for the 
pupils, is a time-consumer for the teacher — and the coun- 
try teacher has to be a veritable miser with his minutes. 
But it also takes more time to select good seed-corn. The 
foresighted farmer knows, however, that when the best 
seed-corn is found it grows more rapidly, that it is more 
robust and healthy, and that it produces a more abundant 
yield than does corn shelled hit-or-miss into the planter. 
So that time is really being saved by using care in the be- 
ginning. In general, the country teacher spends too much 
time with his advanced pupils. If he would devote suf- 
ficient time to starting the little ones right, he would 
need less for them when they grow older. A country 
teacher must economize his time ; but it is poor economy to 
stint the children in the lower grades, when it is certain 



28 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

that much more time will have to be expended later to 
make up for a defective start. Sometimes I doubt if the 
country teacher • is quite sincere in advancing the plea 
that he does not have time as a reason for not teaching 
primary pupils to read by the new method. I fear that 
the reason many a teacher neglects the little folks is that 
he is more interested in the advanced work. As one 
teacher expressed it, "We don't like to fool with the 
young-uns." There is a general theory — or was not 
very long ago — that anybody can teach primary reading, 
but that only a superior teacher can give instruction in 
grammar and higher arithmetic — a theory which is flatly 
contradicted by the fact that the primary teacher in a city 
system receives a higher salary than the upper-grade 
teacher. No ; it is not altogether a question of time ; it is 
partly a matter of wise distribution of the time. Once a 
country teacher realizes that the teaching of primary 
reading is about the most important service he is called 
upon to perform, he will so adjust his work as to obtain 
the additional time necessary to teach by the better 
method — he will quit robbing little Peter to pay big 
Paul. 

3. Some teachers who object to the introduction of the 
new method into country schools state that the modern 
process will interfere with discipline and seat work of the 
older pupils. "I tried it once," writes a country teacher 
whom I had asked to give in his experience, "and all the 



READING 29 

big boys and girls stopped studying to look on. And they 
all laughed." That's too bad. But let me assure you of 
this: if you were to initiate a practice of dancing a jig 
every morning just before noon, your pupils would grow 
so accustomed to it that about the tenth day they would 
not glance up from their books. The human mind, espe- 
cially the child mind, soon accommodates itself to almost 
anything. Once a habit or practice is accepted as a part 
of the order of things, it ceases to excite attention. The 
introduction of the new method, because it is new, will 
perhaps interfere with discipline and seat work for a 
while ; but it will be an old-established fact to your pupils 
long before it is to you — and surely yon can get used 
to it. 

4. The new method, though easier than the old for the 
children, requires more skill on the part of the teacher. 
Now, that is a fact : it is the only valid objection to the 
universal adoption of the combination method in country 
schools. The alphabet method is, indeed, almost the 
easiest bit of teaching that anyone can be called upon to 
do. The combination method is more difficult to learn and 
to practice; it implies considerable knowledge of child 
nature and skill in the application of pedagogical princi- 
ples; it requires originality and versatility. Though, of 
course, it grows easier after it has become habitual, yet 
it is always a complicated process, so complicated that it 
never becomes perfectly mechanical. But the time is com- 



30 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ing when no other method will be used — though when 
that time comes the teacher will be receiving a salary com- 
mensurate with his increased efficiency. The a-b-c 
method will go — that is certain; the question each coun- 
try teacher should ask and answer for himself is, "Shall 
I go zcith it, or go from it? Shall I give up teaching or 
acquire the necessary training?" 

Training N' ceded for tJic Nczv Method 

It is to be hoped you will not give up teaching, for 
one of the serious defects in the American rural school 
system is that young men and women do not remain long 
enough in the profession. Teaching a country school is, 
in many respects, a comparatively pleasant and profitable 
occupation, and is destined to become yet more pleasant 
and profitable. Do not quit teaching; get the training. 
How? If you can secure the money, attend a good 
Normal school, preferably one that offers a short course 
for rural teachers. If that is not feasible — and with many 
of you it is not — train yourselves. This is discussed later. 
(Chapter nine.) It is the only course open to many of 
you. The new method of teaching reading is so difficult 
that you must have training. And if that training be 
acquired by dint of consecrated hours of earnest, am- 
bitions self -improvement, the more honor to you, and. 
it may well be, the more success to you. "Self-schooled, 
self -scanned, self-honored, self-secure," wrote Matthew 



READING 31 

Arnold concerning Shakespeare, You, country teacher, 
may be that also, according to the measure of your abili- 
ties. 

Suggestions for Teaching Reading 

But since this book is intended to discuss conditions as 
they are, and to suggest ways of carrying on the work, 
as well as to point out ideals, I wish now to present some 
general rules for carrying on the work in reading, 
whether you teach by the new method or the old, or while 
you are changing from the one to the other. Let us con- 
sider first the matter of silent reading. 

Silent Reading 

I. Connect the particular lesson as closely as possible 
with the child's life and experience — the country child's 
life and experience. Fortunately, almost all primary 
readers contain subject matter that is familiar to the 
country boy and girl. Some are better than others in 
this regard, notably 'The Outdoor Primer," published 
by Rand, McNally and Co., New York City. (See list 
on page 280.) Open the "Reading Literature Primer and 
First Reader" (Row, Peterson & Co., Chicago), or "First 
Year Language Reader," by Baker and Carpenter (Mac- 
millan Company, New York), and you will find that 
practically every page deals with animals — dogs, cats, 
mice, cows, horses, sheep, birds, fowls — vx'ith aspects of 



32 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

nature, with children and childish pursuits and interests. 
This is the very material out of which the country child's 
ideas are woven. But from the beginning, the child's 
home-built experience must be enlarged; new ideas must 
be presented and grasped. These new ideas must be 
cohered to the old. The cat must grow into the tiger, 
the dog into the lion; the brook that loiters past the 
school-house must deepen and widen and expand into 
the river, the sea; the cluster of houses must be "boomed" 
into a city; the -blacksmith shop must become a foundry. 
And, teacher, the child must be led by you from what 
he knows to what he does not know. You should not, 
or need not, do all the work, of course; simply blow the 
fire and the child will hammer and weld fast the new to 
the old. 

2. Connect the reading lesson proper with all the other 
lessons; continue it throughout the day. Connect it 
with number work, with writing; base, to some extent, 
your spelling lessons on it. In order to do this, you will 
have to shift the order of the reading lessons. This has 
its disadvantages, but it has more than compensating 
values. If you can arrange the material in all your classes 
so that your children in each grade are busy with the 
same subject or with related subjects in Geography, His- 
tory, Nature Study, Arithmetic, Reading, all on the same 
day, you are making learning an organic process, a process 
by which all the materials from all the branches are 



READING 33 

arranged in natural, logical, and usable order in the minds 
of your children. All the other subjects depend largely 
upon reading; see to it that the reading lesson is going 
on continuously, whatever the particular branch you are 
pursuing. 

3. Encourage the smaller children to listen to the 
larger ones reading. We used to think that was a capi- 
tal crime; now we know it is merely a capital way to 
stimulate a greater desire to read. 

4. Encourage the parents, the elder brothers and sis- 
ters to help the little ones at home. Some city teachers 
prefer to have their young pupils entirely in their own 
charge; and this is well. But your time is too precious 
to ignore or discourage any assistance, from whatever 
direction it comes. The probability is that among the 
patrons of your school are some ex-teachers. Why not 
let them help you? Most of them will take an interest 
in their own children, if you consult with them. 

5. Encourage the child to read a great deal. "Read 
much, not many," is a poor maxim for the primary grades. 
If possible, persuade the parents to buy two or three dif- 
ferent readers for each of the lower grades. If that is 
not practical, at least have plenty of good supplementary 
books in the school library, genuine children's books, and 
use these in the class work. The use of the library and 
the development of the reading habit is discussed in 
another chapter. (See pages 129-160.) 



34 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

6. Inasmuch as silent reading is merely thought-get- 
ting, make sure that your children are getting the thought 
in what they read. Have them retell the story, set them 
thinking by proposing suggestive questions. 

7. Train the young people in silent reading. Do not 
let them develop the habit of moving their lips as they 
read; do not let them carry on too long the habit of fol- 
lowing the lines with their fingers. Show them how to 
read rapidly by reading sentences instead of words. One 
of the reasons so many country people read little is that 
they have never learned to do anything but plod. Of 
course, this habit of rapid reading cannot be developed 
until the child has mastered to some extent the mechani- 
cal difficulties of the process; but it should be begun as 
soon as possible. 

8. Take some time to assign the reading lesson. Most 
country teachers fail to realize that the assignment of a 
lesson is quite as important as the preparation of the 
soil before the grain is scattered. Plan your day's work 
so that you will know just what reading lesson you are 
going to take up next; do not simply command at the 
close of a recitation : "Take the next lesson." Intro- 
duce it by a little anecdote or a series of questions which 
lead up to the subject matter of the following lesson. If 
you succeed in arousing a lively interest in the child, you 
have "made a loam that is deep enough for the seeds of 
desire," as George Eliot says. I have seen a lesson in 



READING 35 

reading so cleverly assigned that the children could hardly 
wait to get to their seats, so much did they wish to begin 
work. 

Oral Reading 

So much for silent reading. And it is silent reading 
that is most important — most important in school and 
most important by far after school life is over. But oral 
reading is necessary, and for several reasons. 

I. It furnishes excellent drill in pronunciation. 2. 
It enables the teacher to discover whether the pupil is get- 
ting the thought. 3. It makes the thought clearer. Any 
kind of expression makes an idea more one's own, and 
thereby more vivid. 4. Good oral reading is a pleasing 
art and one mark of culture. 5. Oral reading, necessitat- 
ing as it does proper emphasis and phrasing, subtle 
shading and inflection, distinct, clear-cut enunciation, and 
rich, vibrant intonation, is the best means of training the 
speaking voice. 6. Most good prose and all good poetry 
was written to appeal to the ear as well as to the mind. 
We fail to get the utmost from literature when we ignore 
the elemental beauty of the sound. 

For all these reasons the teacher should emphasize oral 
reading. Especially is the last reason given important 
for the rural teacher. For literature is almost the only 
artistic expression to which the country child has an 
opportunity to yield himself. Great paintings, sculpture, 



36 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

architecture, he rarely sees; great music he rarely hears. 
But great literature — that is his, as much as anybody's. 
And no one, whether poet or peasant, is a complete indi- 
vidual who does not respond generously to some artistic 
expression. Let me now suggest a few points in con- 
nection with the teaching of oral reading: 

How to Teach Oral Reading 

1. Make yourself a good oral reader, I say "make 
yourself," for most of us have to go to school to our- 
selves in this respect. Spend some time every day read- 
ing aloud, trying to express the thought of the printed 
page naturally and effectively. Read aloud to your class. 
The child's "whole vocation is endless imitation"; see to 
it that your pupils have good oral reading to imitate. 

2. Be sure, whenever possible, that your pupils discern 
the thought before they try to express it. The best oral 
reading is impossible when the reader starts a sentence 
without knowing the complete thought. Have the new 
words understood and pronounced before the lesson is 
read; and the best time for this is when you assign the 
lesson. Children in the first and second readers should 
be drilled for some days on words before they meet these 
words in their lessons. This means planning for days 
in advance, but every efficient teacher realizes that thor- 
ough planning is necessary for good work in primary 
reading. 



READING 37 

3. It is a good plan, before you begin oral reading 
in class, to have the thought of the selection told in the 
pupil's own words. This will be of assistance in reading 
the individual sentences, 

4. Correct mispronunciation and formal errors after 
the pupil has finished reading. Remember that the 
thought is more important than the form. An engine 
loses time and wastes fuel when it must halt at each cross- 
road and hen-coop : let the child keep steam up till he has 
finished the run. 

5. Ideal oral expression is natural expression. Time 
spent on such matters as "counting one for a comma, 
two for a semicolon," etc.; or on the dire consequences 
of letting the voice fall when a question mark is sighted 
ahead ; or on insisting on "a slight pause at the end of a 
line of poetry" ; or on reading in a "loud, sonorous voice," 
whatever the natural key of the selection; or on ranting 
in false "elocutionary" style — all this is time ,worse than 
lost. Neither is it a matter of great importance that the 
book be held in the left hand at 12.9 inches from the 
tip of the nose, or that the heel of one foot should fit 
snugly into the arch of the other foot, or even that the 
reader stand at all. Do you, teacher, always stand when 
you read? Natural reading — that's the desideratum. 

6. Have some poetry memorized, and memorize it 
yourself. Needless to say, nothing should be learned by 
heart before it is learned by head. And when your pupils 



38 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

"deliver declamations," see to it that they don't declaim 
and exclaim and proclaim the meaning out of the selec- 
tion. Naturalness here, also. » 
7. Occasionally, on Friday afternoon, try dramatizing 
a reading lesson. Did you ever try to play a reading les- 
son ? Take any selection, with even the simplest elements 
of a story, and you can make that selection glow with 
life by having it acted. This is especially good work for 
the country child, who is usually too backward and self- 
conscious to "let himself go." Children should be viva- 
cious and sprightly and full of high spirits: country chil- 
dren often are not. Usually the rural teacher is a very 
strict disciplinarian, often the father and mother are 
hardworking, practical persons; by example and precept 
the young child is made stolid and matter-of-fact. He 
needs to be roused intellectually, to be thrilled emotion- 
ally. Dramatizing a story is helpful in this. It also 
develops the spirit of co-operation, of team-work, which 
is sometimes stunted in the country child. And country 
teachers have a good deal better chance to do this work 
than the city teacher has, for the former have all kinds 
of children to take the roles in the improvised play — 
the big scholars for giants or "great, huge bears," the 
little tots for children or fairies or "little, wee bears." 
Tr}'' this a few times and see if the children do not enjoy 
it even more than the good old spelling-bee, the traditional 
Friday afternoon game. 



READING 39 

Conclusion 

In this chapter I have merely opened this subject, the 
most important in the school curriculum; I have but 
plowed a furrow around an immense field. It is for you, 
teacher, to reflect and observe and experiment until you 
have solved, partially at least, most of the perplexing 
problems that are involved in every phase of the work. 
We are successful teachers largely in proportion to the 
extent to which we solve these problems. Teaching read- 
ing properly affects so vitally the other school activities 
and studies of our children and connects itself so inti- 
mately with the development of the reading habit so 
important to country people, that we cannot study the 
subject too zealously and practice it too thoughtfully. 
If we succeed in this one branch, we shall have gone far 
toward a solution of the teaching of "English in the 
Country School." 

The Query Box 

As the articles on which this book is based were appearing 
in the West Virginia Educator and The Southern Educator, 
and as I have been speaking on these topics in teachers' in- 
stitutes, I have received dozens of letters from country 
teachers concerning some phase of the general problems of 
English in the Country School. These letters usually made 
pointed, intelligent inquiries, and, incidentally, gave me very 
helpful suggestions, so that they have contributed no little 
to the making of this book. Whenever a letter contained an 
inquiry concerning some phase of the work that I had omit- 



40 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ted from an article. I have endeavored to answer that letter, 
by implication, in the chapters of this volume ; since it is evi- 
dent that a significant question, bearing on an important de- 
tail of the work, would be asked by many readers, and so had 
better be disposed of at once. \\'henever the inquiries made 
have been a little aside from the main theme of the book, I 
have not put a discussion of the points involved in the body 
of the book, but have considered them one by one at the end 
of the chapter most closely related to the query in the letter. 
Thus I have been enabled to treat the subject matter of each 
chapter without many digressions, and at the same time to 
satisfy those who may be curious concerning points rising 
out of the theme of the chapter itself. This section I have 
called "The Query Box." 

I. Do you not think that the nei.v method of teaching 
reading makes learning to read too easy for the children? 

This question, it is evident, involves the question of formal 
discipline, which I discuss briefly further on in this book. 
(See page 179.) Let me here answer the question, Yankee- 
fashion, by asking another : '"Do you think the use of the 
mowing-machine makes farm work too easy?" Teaching a 
child to read is putting into his hands a tool for acquiring 
knowledge. If you can supply him with a tool by which he 
can do more work than with some other tool — can do more 
per hour and. at the same time, save energ}-. by all means 
do so. Acquiring the power to read is. for many, a difficult 
task at the best ; it is tedious and iminteresting in the extreme 
when the child is kept long on the a-b-c's. There is no virtue 
in hard work, when, with the same expenditure of time and 
energ}'. one might do three or four times as much, especially 
when he can have more enjoyment in the doing of it. Our 
country schools have proceeded too long on the theory that 
the more drudgery the child is compelled to do. the better 



READING 41 

will he be trained to work. The best work is always done 
by the people who have the best tools and put the most heart 
into the work. Put the child in possession of the power to 
read as soon as possible; then when he comes to something 
that will challenge his interest, he will work hard enough. 
Nor does this mean that the teacher shall do all the work. 
It only means that he will direct the child along the easiest 
road to knowledge. 

2. Do you not think that the modern method of teaching 
reading is too much like playf 

It is not at all like play for the teacher; it is hard work. 
But it is much like play for the child. Not too much, how- 
ever. Every bit of work into which the spirit of play does 
not enter is drudgery — and drudgery is one of the most mel- 
ancholy things in the world. The farmer who does not do 
his work with somewhat of the play instinct is treading a 
dreary round of monotony that will end in intellectual and 
even moral death. We obtain little happiness from doing 
work that we have to do ; it is what we want to do that most 
develops us. Of course, every person has to do a certain 
amount of drudgery ; but the less there is, on the farm or 
in the schoolroom, the more happiness and the more con- 
structive work will there be in the universe. In teaching 
reading, literature, composition writing, any of the English 
branches or any other branch, endeavor to get the children 
to do their work in the spirit of play. Self-inspired, self- 
initiated, self-sustained, self-completed activity is the activity 
that counts most in developing a character with the power of 
initiative and with virilitv. 



CHAPTER TWO 

LITERATURE IN THE LOWER GRADES 

■ Perhaps a few teachers will be surprised, after hav- 
ing finished the preceding chapter on Reading to discover 
a chapter — two of them in fact — on Literature. "Aren't 
they the same?" I have been asked. "Isn't Hterature com- 
posed merely of zvordsf and doesn't one read Hterature? 
How, then, does reading differ from Hterature?" Just 
in this: Anything read is reading; i. e., reading matter; 
but only a certain kind of that matter is literature. The 
readers in our country schools are, of course, full of read- 
ing matter; but some of them are quite empty of litera- 
ture. Naturally the question springs out : "Wliat then, 
is literature?" 

What Is Literature? 

Well, now, to be quite frank. I don't know, I know 
that literature is intensely interesting; that it makes me 
serious, or happy, or gay, or patriotic, or religious — 
rouses me to some keen, healthy emotion; that it makes 
me feel and think and desire to act; that the expression 
of the thought seems the very best. All this and more 
do I know about Hterature, but as for giving a definition 
— I must confess my impotence. Here are some col- 

42 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 43 

lected by Professor John Harrington Cox and inserted 
in his excellent little book, "Literature in the Common 
Schools" : 

"Literature is a record of the best thoughts." — Ralph 
Waldo Emerson. 

"Literature is an artistic embodiment of life, the work 
of the selective judgment and creative imagination."— 
/. Rose Colby. 

"Literature may be broadly defined as the adequate 
expression of genuine and typical emotion." — Arlo Bates. 

If you will examine these definitions, you will see that 
they do not define, as the authors of the definitions would 
themselves confess. To define anything is to bound it 
in, to fence it. When you have defined anything, you 
can say of it : "Here it is ; it ends precisely at this point 
or along this line; it includes everything within this 
boundary and excludes everything outside." To define 
a word is to separate that word from all other words 
whatsoever and to include every possible shade of mean- 
ing that the word can have. The word "literature" is too 
extensive to be fenced in, too subtle to be woven into 
homespun, too volatile to be imprisoned in a vial; it is 
"As broad and general as the casing air." No one can 
define life, or the human face, or music — at least, not in 
such a way as really to comprise all that those terms 
mean; and no one can define literature. 

But though literature is indefinable, it is intelligible 



44 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

and recognizable. We can be sure at least that a good 
many pages in the average reader used in the country 
school are filled with reading matter, not literature. 
Attempts have been made to construct a series of readers 
entirely out of literature; such are "The Reading-Litera- 
ture Series" (Row, Peterson and Co., Chicago) ; "The 
Heart of Oak" series (D. C. Heath and Co., Boston) ; 
Williams' "Choice Literature" (American Book Co., 
Cincinnati) ; and, for the upper grades, Elson's "Gram- 
mar School Readers" (Scott, Foresman and Co., New 
York). The second and third series named, excellent 
though they are, are nearly always used as supplementary. 
Almost all basal readers contain both literature and other 
reading matter. 

Not Every Reading Lesson a Literature Lesson 

Now, although I think literature is about the most 
important thing in this world except life itself, I see no 
reason to complain because our school readers are not 
"chock-full" of literature — especially our primary read- 
ers. It is not necessary to make every reading lesson a 
literature lesson. 

Why not? 

I. The teaching of reading in the lower grades must be 
largely formal and intellectual, while the teaching of lit- 
erature is alwavs cultural. Let me be understood. We 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 45 

know, of course, that \ve must not deal with the formal 
any longer than is necessary, and that we must teach it 
along with that which has real subject matter. (See 
pages 206-7.) But we also, know that in primary reading 
Ave ..must emphasize pronunciation, meaning of new 
words, and the getting of ideas, because the child is 
.becoming acquainted with letters and words. Now, in a 
literature lesson v;e must emphasize the emotional con- 
tent. Of course, before the emotional and cultural con- 
tent can be reached, the words must be known; but when- 
ever we emphasize the mechanics of reading, the spirit 
of the selection departs. That is something that even col- 
lege professors of English are prone to forget. We 
should not make every reading lesson a literature lesson, 
then, because the emphasis upon the two is different. 

2. Literature does not* furnish enough of that par- 
ticular information which the lower grades need; in fact, 
the imparting of information is hardly a function of 
literature at all. The child needs to read in connection 
with his geography, for example; where shall he find 
much literature that will give him information? Of 
course, he can get plenty of geographical reading matter 
— Carpenter's Geographical Readers, for instance, or the 
"Little People Everywhere" series, published by Little, 
.Brown and Co., Boston. But these are reading books, 
not compilations of literature. We cannot make every 



46 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

reading lesson a literature lesson, then, because we cannot 
always find the material to correlate with your other 
school work. . 

3. In the lower grades the literature is always a year 
or two in advance of the reading matter. Suppose we 
have a certain selection which we may teach either as 
plain reading or as literature; as literature you might be 
able to put it in the first grade, but you could not teach 
it as reading before the third. The reason for this is 
obvious : in the literature lesson in primary grades the 
teacher always takes the initiative, while in the reading 
lesson the children should be required to perform most of 
the work by themselves. This thought is developed more 
fully a little later (see pages 63-4) ; it is more important 
than we usually think, 

4, There is not sufficient literature to furnish reading 
matter in the lower grades, especially in the first grade. 
Open a first reader, even one that claims to be completely 
literary, and see how few of the great masters of litera- 
ture you find represented there. Literature is often very 
simple, but it is usually not simple enough to serve as 
reading material for little children. There is a good deal 
of excellent poetry written especially for little children : 
Mother Goose, Stevenson, Miss Rossetti, Blake, Mrs. 
Richards, Frank Demster Sherman; and it should be 
taught to children. But it is not taught as reading les- 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 47 

sons; nor could it be. There is not much prose Hterature 
that can be utiHzed as reading material for the first or 
even the second grade. Much that we use has the proper 
subject matter, and even the proper treatment; but little 
of it is couched in that perfect, permanent phrase which 
is the final and fundamental mark of literature. If we 
use the literature appropriate — fairy stories, etc., we must 
read it or tell it to the children; and that is not a read- 
ing lesson. If we write it down in simple enough lan- 
guage to serve as, material for a reading lesson, we have 
spoiled it as literature. I am not contending that we 
should not introduce a considerable amount of literature 
or that we should not carry over from the literature all 
we possibly can to assist the child in learning to read. 
( See page 67. ) I am only insisting that we do not have 
sufficient childish literature to give children practice in 
the art of reading. Now, children must have plenty of 
reading matter; and if there is not in circulation enough 
genuine sterling coin — why, we must issue some paper 
money, I suppose. 

Do not attempt, therefore, to make every reading les- 
son, especially in the first grades, a literature lesson. In 
the upper grades you can do this; in fact, some states 
have adopted readers for the lower grades and literature 
readers for the upper grades. Some one has said that in 
the lower grades the children learn to read, and in the 
upper grades they read to learn — or to feel. You should 



48 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

teach cJiildroi to read, and you should teach literature to 
eJiiIdre)i; but the process is different. Examine each 
selection in your readers, therefore, to discover whether 
it should be taught as a reading lesson or a literature 
lesson ; then proceed to teach it in the manner suited to its 
classification. 

Tests of Literature 

But of course, there is little use in suggesting that we 
examine a selection to discover whether it is literature 
material or reading material, if we do not know what to 
examine it for. Definitions do not render much assistance ; 
but are there not tests which one can apply? Yes, there 
are tests; the difiiculty is that their application requires a 
considerable amount of special training. It is much like 
the determination of good soil : there are tests one can 
apply, but one must be a specialist to apply these tests. 
However, here are two very simple means of discovering 
whether a selection is literature, and therefore to be 
taught as literature : 

I. See who the author is; if he is known to you as a 
great writer, you may expect this particular selection to 
be literature. That is not always true, of course ; for even 
the greatest of writers sometimes produces inferior crea- 
tions. But usually only the best productions of an author 
are inserted in a school reader. 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 49 

2. Most of the poetry in the reader is Hterature — at 
least the editors of the reader think it is Hterature. 

But those two means of recognizing Hterature are not 
certain. Here are three that are better, though they are 
harder : 

1. Are the words expressive? the phrases striking? 
the sentences as a whole clear and forcible? the sentences 
well connected in each paragraph or stanza? the para- 
graphs or stanzas well connected with each other? And 
does the whole selection deal with only one main thought, 
and that a thought worth while? 

2. So far as you can judge, are the emotions sincere 
and healthy? Are the characters human and natural? 
Are the ideas and opinions of the author true to the facts 
of life and nature? 

3. When you read the selection aloud, does the sound 
(especially if the selection is poetry) remind you of the 
idea? For example, does the sound of Bryant's "Robert 
of Lincoln" suggest the jollity of the bird's song and the 
happiness of his life? Does the sound of "Thanatopsis" 
suggest the solemnity and majesty of the thought? On 
the other hand, does the light, tripping, gay music of 
"The Death of the Flowers" fit in well with the som- 
breness of the theme? 

If you can answer these questions in the affirmative, 
you have some good evidence that the selection is litera- 



50 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

tiire. Here are four other ways of testing a selection ; 
this time you observe the effect of it on your pupils : 

1. Does it give pleasure to your pupils? 

2. Does it make clear, interesting pictures in their 
minds as they read? 

,^. Does it arouse their feelings and thoughts? 

4. Do they like to read it over and o^•er ? 

If the selection under inspection stands all these tests, 
you may be contident that it is literature. But after all, 
the best way to determine the literary excellence of any 
poem or story is to develop a critical taste by wise and 
wide reading. After you have read thoughtfully a great 
deal of good literature, you will not have to apply tests 
to decide whether a ucnn selection is literature — you will 
just know it. as a lapidary is able to pick out a diamond 
from a handful of rhinestones. 

''Liicyciturc" a Coinprclicnsk'C Word 

But you must remember two facts : that what is lit- 
erature for you may not be literature for your pupils ; and 
that "literature" is a very comprehensive word, indeed. 
It includes everything from "Paradise Lost" down to 
"Little Boy Blue." Anything written that gives pleas- 
ure and stirs healthy emotion is literature — which is 
about as indefinite a definition as anv one could find. But 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 51 

in proportion to the degree in which an affirmative answer 
to these last four questions is true, in that proportion is 
the selection examined, great literature. 

Types of Literature in Lower Grades 

Naturally, after the question of what literature is has 
been answered, we must next consider the different forms 
that literature may take. For the lower grades the favor- 
ite types are : 

1. Mother Goose Melodies. These are short, musical 
jingles on childish subjects, often containing a nonsensical 
idea. They are replete with repetition and alliteration, 
and move with a natural rhythm that is quite irresistible. 
It is healthful literary food for the child. And it is par- 
ticularly nutritious for the country child. Its tricksy 
humor, its brightness and rollicking jollity, its music and 
its suggestiveness — all these make a strong appeal to the 
farmer's little boy and girl, whose life is all too likely to 
be solitary and melancholy, devoid of the natural childish 
emotions. 

2. Nonsense Verses. These are usually longer and 
somewhat more difficult. They depend for their interest 
on absurdity, on patent exaggeration, on a conscious turn- 
ing upside-down of the familiar. Funny new words are 
invented, grotesque animals and plants created — the sole 
aim being to raise laughter. Edward Lear, Lewis Car- 



52 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

roll, Carolyn Wells, and Laura E. Richards are perhaps 
the favorite nonsense-verse makers. These jingles, like 
the jMother Goose verses, are lively in rhvthni ; thev are 
as musical as the popping" of corn in a popper. The sense 
of rhythm is innate in nearly every child, and it should 
be developed. The little boy or girl in the country par- 
ticularly need this style of verse, to counteract the ten- 
dency toward apathy which a lonely life develops. 

3. Tlic ''Child Lyric." This is the more serious poetry 
of childish thoughts and experience. It deals with nature 
— animate and inanimate — with children, their toys and 
sports, their habits and ideas. The good child lyric must 
have simplicity without emptiness: it must be vibrant 
with those emotions common to children ; it must be musi- 
cal. Any moral lesson it may carry is quite incidental ; 
but it often contains a small segment of a universal truth. 
He who properly learns Stevenson's ''The Wind" will 
some day see that this charming little poem contains the 
same thought that is expressed in the words of Jesus : 
"The wind bloweth where it listeth ; and thou hearest the 
sound thereof, but canst not tell wdience it cometh and 
whither it goeth." The child w-ho feels the emotion in 
Christina Rossetti's "Town INIouse and Country Mouse," 
who feels the tenderness in the last line : 'Toor little 
timid, furry man" — is tracing a small arc of the large 
circle drawn by Robert Burns in his poem "'To a ■Mouse." 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 53 

4. "Cumulative Talcs/' as they have been aptly called. 
Three of the most famous of these are "The Old Woman 
and the Pig," "The House That Jack Built," and "Henny- 
Penny."* This kind of literature is created by beginning 
with a single idea, adding new details one by one, each 
time going clear back to the first step and retracing the 
steps in order. Repetition and a constantly repeated 
refrain are the most prominent literary qualities of this 
type. They have humor and furnish genuine fun; and 
when well told or read, they keep the listening youngster 
on the alert. They are, therefore, to be highly recom- 
mended to the country teacher as capital material for his 
youngest pupils. The average country child is not as 
quick and responsive as the city child, because he has not 
been awakened by so much contact with the world. Any 
literature that froths over with fun and sets the senses and 
the emotions tingling with the intoxication of ardent 
interest — that is a very delicious drink for the country 
child. It may be said incidentally, that, on account of the 
numerous repetitions, the cumulative tale serves admir- 
ably in teaching reading, as well as literature. 

5. Fables. A fable is a short story in which the lower 
animals think, feel, talk and act like human beings, the 
story itself illustrating some truth of human experience. 
The qualities in this literary type make a direct appeal 

* "The Reading-Literature Primer,"' Row, Peterson & Co., Chi- 
cago, is made up entirely of these cumulative stories. 



54 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

to the child. Animals always interest him ; and talking 
animals absorb him. The story element, too, has a strong- 
charm; it is simple, direct, brief. It is full of action, 
often stirring action. It works up to a climax and often 
ends in such a way as to appeal to the child's sense of 
justice — which is always "poetic" justice. The moral. 
so often grafted on the end of the fable, should be pruned 
away, so that the little reader can. when adroitly ques- 
tioned, draw his own conclusion and make his own 
applications. 

6. Animal Stories. These resemble the fables, but 
they are usuaMy longer and usually do not point out any 
particular lesson in conduct. Kipling's "Jungle Book." 
Joel Chandler Harris' "Uncle Remus Stories," and 
Thompson-Seton's "\\'ild Animals I Have Known." are 
perhaps the best specimens of this type. (^The second is 
too difficult to be read by the children: they cannot mas- 
ter the dialect. But they easily understand the stories 
when they are read or told.) Country people come into 
closer contact with animals than do any other class of 
people. All literature, therefore, that deals with animal 
life in an imaginative way is doubly valuable for country 
children : it deals with material with which they are 
already acquainted, and it brings them into a desirable 
sympathy with animals. The country child is too prone 
to take a matter-of-fact attitude toward the lower ani- 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 55 

mals ; he rarely sees in them the resemblances to humanity, 
the weakness, the cunning, the lovableness that most dumb 
animals reveal to one who watches them sympathetically. 

7. Nursery Tales and Fairy Stories. These rhay be 
considered as one type, though they are not precisely the 
same. A Nursery Tale is "a narrative of imaginary 
events, wherein is celebrated a hero of more or less hum- 
ble origin, a child's hero, who, by his own wit and energy, 
together with the possession of a charm, is enabled to do 
stupendous deeds, which bring to him material happi- 
ness"; while a Fairy Story is "a narrative of imaginary 
events wherein the chief actors are beings other than man 
and the gods — beings who have power to help man or to 
tease and molest him, but not the power utterly to destroy 
him."* The child, however, makes no distinction, and I 
suppose we need not. Both tell a story in which a hero 
or heroine — usually a child — does wonderful deeds, and, 
often with fairy assistance, arrives at some highly desir- 
able goal. "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Cinderella," "Puss 
in Boots," and "Goldilocks" are four representative speci- 
mens of the nursery tale; and Hans Andersen's collec- 
tions contain some of the best fairy stories. The story 
in these types is often long and, to grown-ups, rather 
tiresome, perhaps; but to children it seems full of excit- 
ing climaxes, of hair-raising adventures with brutal giants 

* Harriott Ely Fansler in "Types of Prose Narratives," Row, 
Peterson & Co., Chicago. 



56 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

and malicious fairies. The cliaracters are well marked 
and easily understood by the child. The young reader 
finds some humor and derives exquisite delight from see- 
ing the child hero overcome great odds and achieve suc- 
cess. The best specimens of this type are suffused with 
feeling, and, moreover, make demands upon the com- 
pliant imagination of the young. Fairy stories are excel- 
lent for the country child, for the work-a-day existence 
of his later life has a strong tendency to make him exces- 
sively practical and hard-headed and unimaginative. Let 
the farmer's boy and girl have all the fairy stories and 
nursery tales they can consume — Grimm, Andersen, 
Jacobs, Lang, Perrault and all that delightful company. 

Other Types of Literature 

These seven types include all the forms of literature 
for country children, so far as their own reading is con- 
cerned. But there are other types that they should be 
made familiar with : these the teacher must read or tell — 
preferably tell. Country children should know the tra- 
ditional myths and legends; but, since these do not exist 
in any literature comprehensible to the average little child, 
the teacher must give them in a suitable form. You will 
find these old-world stories retold in certain collections. 
Literature is simply honeycombed with references to 
these old tales, and you and your children must be 
familiar with the tales before the references are clear. 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 57 

Another kind of literature you should acquaint your 
pupils with is that vast store comprised in the Bible. 
Perhaps you cannot read from the Bible in your school; 
but you can, at least, retell some of those good old stories 
that are a part of the world-knowledge and world-cul- 
ture : the story of Joseph and young David and Samson 
and Daniel. And here let me record my conviction that 
you, Country Teacher, should be a teacher in the Sunday 
School, if your religious convictions will permit. Per- 
haps the city teacher should not conduct a class in the 
Sunday School, though I am not so sure of that : but you, 
as one of the leading citizens in your community, should 
identify yourself with this good work, both from a 
religious motive and because you will thus have a chance 
to teach your pupils some of the choicest literature. 

The Subject Matter of Primary Literature 

So much for the forms, the types. Now as to the 
material. This is indicated in the names of the forms; 
but perhaps a few additional hints can be given. The 
material, it may be remarked, is more important than the 
form, so far as children are concerned. It is not of 
pressing importance whether the form be one or the other 
of these seven kinds, so long as it contains the material 
that children want and need. What should be the nature 
of the material in literature presented to country chil- 
dren, little children ? 



58 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

I. It should deal with nature and the great out-of- 
doors. The I'eason for this is obvious. Children often 
care for nature more than does the average adult, and 
country children should care for it very much indeed. 
Now, some country children have very little feeling for 
the beauties and wonders of the natural world. Perhaps 
it is because they come in contact with the creations of 
nature so much that they become matter-of-course, and 
therefore make little impression on the mind. Perhaps 
it is because this contact is largely on the utilitarian side : 
it is difficult to see any beauty in the purple aster when it 
has become a troublesome weed. Perhaps it is because 
the average country dweller, even the country child, is so 
afraid of sentimentality that he avoids even the appear- 
ance of sentiment. At any rate, the love of nature is not 
highly enough developed among country people in gen- 
eral and country children in particular. That school 
branch called "Nature Study'' is the best for inspiring 
and developing this love for all the graces and beauties 
and wonders of the realm of nature; but literature, espe- 
cially poetry, has an important and a peculiar value in this 
regard. Nature Study satisfies largely the intellectual 
curiositv of the child, whereas the literature of nature 
appeals to his emotional side. 

It is not enough that we be surrounded by nature's 
creations ; we need to have our eyes and our hearts opened 
by the inspiring words of a poet. Occasionally IMother 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 59 

Nature, impatient of our slowness of comprehension, our 
lethargy of heart, sends to us an interpreter — a Words- 
worth, a Burns, a Keats. If we listen to him for a time, 
we are instructed how to observe, how to appreciate, how 
to feel ; then, and only then, are some of us brought into 
an ardent affection fgr nature. In general, the nature 
poetry for young country children should be simple and 
concrete; it should not be too subtle, too profound. It 
should deal with the ordinary experiences of country life, 
without laying very much stress upon ethical lessons. 
Many of the great nature poets draw deep philosophic 
truths from their observations and reflections, others 
reveal the close parallelisms between the phenomena of 
the natural world and those of the social and spiritual 
world; these are not for young children. 

2. It should emphasize the altruistic feelings that 
develop in the early years : love for animals and pets, 
love for brothers and sisters, for father and mother. This 
is not the period for teaching patriotism or the feeling of 
kinship with the whole universe. That will come later; 
at this time it is meaningless. A child's love grows by 
what it feeds upon : it expands as each experience is 
digested and assimilated. 

3. It should be highly imaginative. Among country 
people there is a feeling that the fairy story or any litera- 
ture that departs from the exact fact is injurious. In some 



60 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

rural communities the prejudice against tiction is so 
intense that children are never allowed to glance into any 
volume that is suspected of being a "novel." Of course, 
this is quite wrong. Shall we shut our children off from 
some of the greatest literature in the world merely because 
"it isn't so?" The average country child is literally starv- 
ing for something to feed his growing, glowing imagina- 
tion upon — and we give him cold, hard facts. The litera- 
ture country children most need is the fanciful, the 
imaginative, the exaggerated. Deprive them of this, and 
you make them serious-minded, cold-blooded, ultra-prac- 
tical, stolid. 

4. It should contain plenty of lively fun. Childhood 
is the time for gaiety and jollity, and the literature for 
children should minister to the child's love of laughter 
and merriment. We would all be better men and women 
and live richer and fuller lives, if we could but carry 
over into maturity some of the optimism and cheer of 
childhood. To be sure, existence cannot all be fun and 
lightness of heart : "There is a time to laugh and a time 
to mourn;" but the adult who has forgotten how to 
laugh and how to play is indeed a wretched being. If 
we nourish the young child upon literature that contains 
fun, that child will probably grow into the full stature of 
a man — a man capable of meeting the ills and calamities 
of life, sweet-tempered under adversity, proof against the 



LITERATbRE IN LOWER GRADES 61 

various shocks and changes of mortaHty. Literature for 
country children, then, should contain plenty of youthful 
humor. 

Having discussed the types of literature for young 
country children and the contents of that literature, let 
me now speak briefly of certain other characteristics. 

Characteristics of Children's Literature in the Lower 

Grades 

I. Much of the literature should be poetry. One 
fundamental of poetry is emotional power. "Poetry is 
emotion recollected in tranquillity," says Wordsworth. 
We have already seen how important it is that the coun- 
try boy and girl should be made to feel deeply. There is 
no necessity that the life of country folk should be hum- 
drum and monotonous ; it should be filled with emotion — 
honest love for the beautiful and the true and the noble. 
There is more emotion in life than in literature; but lit- 
erature can help us to train and guide and idealize the 
emotions of life. The country child should be fed largely 
upon poetry for another reason : it develops the sense of 
rhythm. The melodies of Mother Goose comprise some 
of the most rhythmic verses in all literature. "Perhaps 
the best quantitative verses in our language are to be 
found in Mother Goose," says James Russell Lowell. 
Now, rhythm is the basis of music; and if the sense of 
rhythm, which is latent in nearly every child, is unde- 



62 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

veloped in youth, perhaps the unfortunate individuals 
will be forever debarred from the enjoyments of music. 
(See page yj.) 

2. The selections should be brief. If it is poetry, the 
lines are often short and the stanzas composed of few 
lines. 

3. The language, while it should be in advance of the 
child's speech, should not be difficult. If the child is 
interested in the subject matter, he will clamber over 
many a tall word ; but generally he should be able to under- 
stand the meaning without very much mental agility. 
Children's literature should not abound in figures of 
speech; it should be concrete, very concrete. 

How to Teach Literature in the Lozccr Grades 

Now for the most difficult of all the problems concern- 
ing literature for country children in the primary grades : 
how to teach it? Here is the most valuable general sug- 
gestion that I can give : so teach it that it will appeal to 
the child's emotional nature. Be sure that it makes him 
feel. Literature does not exist to communicate informa- 
tion, but to arouse emotion. Do not expect the child to 
know any more when he has mastered the selection. If 
you have caused him to feel a good emotion and have 
planted in him just the tiniest grain of an idea, you have 
tausfht literature. 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 63 

It is almost impossible to present very explicit direc- 
tions about the teaching of literature, because each selec- 
tion must be treated differently. Here, however, are 
some broad suggestions : 

1. Always connect the literature with the child's life. 
Start with some simple, familiar fact in his experience — 
the experience of the country child. For example : you 
are to teach Stevenson's "My Shadow," or Rossetti's 
"The Wind." You begin with informal conversation 
about shadows or about the wind, and lead your class 
to the point where the central idea of the poems will 
appeal to them. Be sure that you always base your teach- 
ing of a selection on something known to your pupils. 
This will mean that you can not teach the selections in 
the order they come in the book; you must choose to fit 
the occasion, the mood, the idea. Teach "Cock Robin" 
when the robins are to be seen; teach Kipling's "Seal 
Lullaby" when the sea and the seal are in the minds of 
the children. Of course, some selections cannot be so 
easily brought in : but there is a certain moment or mood 
for each unit of literature. 

2. You should generally read the selection aloud 
before asking the children to attempt it. You are not now 
trying to teach new words or pronunciation or even 
inflection and expressiveness; you are trying to start a 
feeling in these little hearts. You will not usually read 



64 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

it aloud until you have got the children in the proper 
mood to receive it ; but you must read it aloud, and read it 
well, before you can truly say you have completely taught 
literature. I recommend that the teacher read first, 
because very much depends upon first impressions. If 
you were going to try to move your children with a selec- 
tion of music, you would not ask one of them to play. 
We must realize that a literature lesson is not a reading 
lesson, not a language lesson, not a lesson in nature study ; 
it is a means of communicating emotion. You must fol- 
low Longfellow's advice : "lend to the rhyme of the poet 
the beauty of thy voice." Of course, as the children 
become able to read well, let them read before you do; 
but yoH should always read. Literature yields all its 
emotion only when the human voice has sent the emotion-, 
laden words through the ear-mechanism into the mind. 
If you cannot read well, subject yourself to a strict 
apprenticeship until you have learned the art. 

3. After you have read the selection aloud, you should 
then have another informal chat with the class. Bring 
out, by questions, the more difficult ideas, and see that 
the chief thought from which the emotion springs is 
clear. 

4. Next, have the children read. Aim to secure nat- 
uralness and expressiveness. If a pupil does not clearly 
express the meaning and the emotion of any sentence or 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 65 

Stanza, question him diplomatically until he grasps the 
thought of the author; then ask him to express that 
thought. But if you have read well and have brought 
but the meaning of the selection in your discussions with 
the class, the children will usually read with feeling and 
understanding. Needless to say, all this requires time — 
so much time that you cannot conduct a literature lesson 
every day. But this work is fundamental; devote to it 
all the time you possibly can. We are all inclined to be 
"minute-wise and hour-foolish" in teaching small children. 

5. Have the children memorize the selection if it is 
short and easily learned. If it is real literature, it will 
expand and deepen with significance and beauty, as the 
children become men and women. Some rural teachers 
make a practice of writing a stanza or short poem on the 
board in the morning and requiring the children to learn 
it within the day. That is a good plan ; but I suggest that 
it would always be well to select as a memory gem some 
poem that has been studied in class. It is never good 
pedagogy to force children to commit to memory any- 
thing that they do not understand tolerably well. Some 
teachers require too much memorizing. But children 
commit easily; and if you choose your selections with 
care and make sure that your pupils comprehend the 
meaning, you are not likely to err in this direction. We 
all know that in later life a stanza from a beautiful poem 



66 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

learned in childhood will often come drifting into the 
mind, luminous with significance. 

6. Be careful how you bring out the "lesson" of the 
lesson. We teachers are too much inclined to use a 
magnifying-glass to lind a moral in a bit of literature. 
"That's something practical," we think; "that's worth 
while." Says IMiss Isabel McKinney ("Study of Litera- 
ture in the Upper Grades") : "It is a pity for the teacher 
to make moral what the writer has made spiritual." 
IMuch literature contains ethical thoughts ; but much of 
it has no more moral significance than a selection of music. 
Don't force a moral into a selection that makes no attempt 
to draw a moral. And if it does develop a moral, don't 
thrust it down the throats of your pupils ; merely arouse 
the emotion that the selection glows with, and the moral 
goes home of its own power. 

FurtJicr Suggestions for TcacJiiug Literature 

These half dozen directions are but suggestions. Each 
selection will need different treatment. The teacher 
should examine each bit of literature he is to teach for the 
most essential characteristic. In some selections it is the 
music of the words and phrases; in some it is a descrip- 
tion of a scene; in others it is the expression of an 
emotion; in still others it is the development of some 
ethical theme. Appraise each selection and emphasize the 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 67 

one element or idea that is its core; then subordinate the 
details or eliminate them entirely. And the teacher should 
not worry if the children do not comprehend the intel- 
lectual and emotional content as thoroughly as he does. 
One of the many virtues of great literature is that it 
keeps on deepening and widening in significance as the 
individual develops. Your wider experience assists you 
in interpreting a bit of literature better than the children 
can; you read more out of it and into it. Be content if 
your pupils appreciate the underlying thought and feeling ; 
as they grow, the selection will grow. 

One suggestion more. I have been insisting that we 
must make a difference between a reading lesson and a 
literature lesson. AA^e teach reading so that our pupils 
may be able to master the mechanics of silent and oral 
reading; we teach literature so that they may feel a 
worthy emotion and may develop their imagination and a 
taste for the beautiful. But naturally our children will 
transfer from their lesson in reading much that will help 
them in their literature lesson, and vice versa. A lesson in 
literature should inspire in our pupils a desire to read 
well, so that they may be able to enjoy literature; just as 
story-telling o-ften furnishes an incentive to young chil- 
dren to learn to read — so that they can read for them- 
selves the stories the teacher tells. It is highly desirable 
that this transference of ideas and motives should take 
place; and. so long as the teacher holds firmly before his 



68 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

mind the fundamental differences in teaching reading and 
teaching Hterature, only good will come from this carry- 
ing-over proces's. Alternate your reading lessons and 
literature lessons, just as farmers rotate crops: each will 
assist the other. 

A Model Llssoji in Pr'iDiary Literature 

If you have followed carefully the thoughts developed 
in this chapter, you will have formed some derinite ideas 
about the kinds of literature that young country chil- 
dren should study and the qualities of that literature, 
and will have some ideas about the teaching of a selec- 
tion. Let me now illustrate all this by showing how to 
teach a specific poem. This is chosen in accordance with 
the principles laid down above. I have chosen poetry 
rather than prose because in some respects it is harder to 
teach and because poetry should, as I have said, con- 
stitute a goodly proportion of the literar}' diet of the 
young country boy and girl. Doubtless many of you can 
teach this poem more successfully by plans of your own 
than by following this model ; but perhaps all can extract 
some usable hints. 

The selection is a poem by Christina Rossetti. *'The 
Rainbow." 

Boats sail on the rivers, i 

And ships sail on the seas ; 2 

But clouds that sail across the sky 3 

Are prettier far than these. 4 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 69 

There are bridges on the rivers, 5 

As pretty as you please ; 6 

But the bow that bridges heaven, 7 

And overtops the trees, 8 

And builds a road from earth to sky, 9 

Is prettier far than these. 10 

Study of the Poem 

Now, it is evident that before teaching this poem (or 
any other selection of literature, for that matter) you 
must understand the poem and feel the emotion that 
permeates it. To direct your study, work by this simple 
outline: i. The Contents; 2. The Form; 3. The 
Predominant Emotions; 4. Reading Aloud. 

The Contents 

The contents are very easily analyzed. There are 
but two main ideas, i. White- winged boats sail on the 
rivers and ships sail on the seas. White clouds are ships 
crossing the sky-ocean; they are much prettier* than real 
ships on real oceans. 2. Over the rivers extend very 
pretty bridges joining one bank to the other. The rain- 
bow is a bridge, too, reaching over the tops of the highest 
trees and joining earth and sky. This bridge is far pret- 
tier than real wooden bridges over real streams. These 
two main ideas are connected, of course, else the poem 
would lack unity. They are connected by the similarity 
in the language used to express the two ideas. They are 



70 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

connected by the fact that the clouds in the tirst stanza 
and the rainbow in the second are both phenomena of the 
sky. and that the river is a feature in both main thoughts. 
Moreover, they are connected by the natural relation 
between the clouds in the lirst stanza and the rainbow in 
the second. 

The Form 

The poem consists of two stanzas, of four and six 
lines or verses, though we might almost as well consider 
it as one unbroken lyric. There is but one rhyme-vowel. 
long-"e." followed by the "z' '-consonant. Three accented 
words are found in each line except 3 and 9. which have 
four accents. The short lines produce a sprightly el^'ect. 
Avhile the two longer lines suggest stateliness and create 
a slower movement. Three lines end with a word of two 
syllables accented on the first: "rivers," ''heavens": this 
produces a light, tripping effect. Notice the alliteration: 
of "p" in verse 6; of "b" in verse 7; of ''t" in verse 8. 
Notice particularly the frequent use of the consonant 
"s" especially what is called "soft-s," which is really the 
"z"-sound — one of the most musical of English sounds. 
The words are all short. ]\Iuch repetition is found. 

Does all this seem unnecessarily analytical ? May he it 
is: but if you are to read this little poem aloud as well as 
the beauty of the sound deserves, you will study how ]Miss 
Rossetti succeeded in getting the peculiarly soft, musical 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 71 

effect so noticeable throughout. You will not, of course, 
attempt to teach these details to your children. 

The Predominant Emotion 

It is comparatively easy to understand the contents 
and the form of a childish poem such as this. And easy, 
also, to discern the predominant emotion : love of pretty 
clouds and the beautiful rainbow. But it is not enough 
to see the emotion; you must feel it. Wordsworth 
exclaims : 

]\Iy heart leaps up when I behold 

A rainbow in the sky. 

Do our hearts leap up? Probably not; we are not as 
sensitive to the influences of nature as Wordsworth was. 
"Too feeble fall the impressions of nature on us to make 
us artists," says Emerson. But white clouds sailing 
across the blue sky are beautiful. As I write, I see them 
from the window — graceful, majestic, mysterious — sug- 
gestive of limitless space, but suggestive, too, of the holi- 
est peace — hinting at that ineffable feeling of the pres- 
ence of a living Creator, that feeling always set vibrating 
by an inanimate natural object moving — running water, 
trees swayed by the wind, floating clouds. If we do not 
feel to some degree the charm, the loveliness of the 
"clouds that sail across the sky" ; if we do not discern 
the beauty, the marvelous beauty of the rainbow, "God's 
promise stretched across the sky," — if we do not feel this, 



72 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

\vc arc not yet ready to waken in our children the emotion 
that is the very essence of this poem. Xor can anyone 
give us a rule that \vc may follow in order to feel the 
beantv of Nature. \\'e must simply yield our spirit to 
the spell of all that is noble and grand and gracious and 
lovely, and this will create in us a heart capable of ap- 
preciation. 

Ri\idiiu7 Aloud 

If you have, in preparing to teach this poem, taken 
the tirst three steps, yon will he able to read it aloud with 
intelligence and sincerity. Here are some miscellaneous 
sviggestions : 

I. This is a simple poem: read it simply. 

J. Emphasize those words that have most significance. 
For example: "Boats sail on the rivers," not "Boats 
sail. ti;j the rivers." In other words, avoid the sing-song. 

3. Stress the alliterative words. For example: "As 
prot-{\ as von f^icase" : "And over-^i/^.x' the trees." Thi> 
must not be overdone, but the sounds must be strong- 
enough to produce their natural musical ettect. 

4. Bring out the contrasts in ideas. For example: 
"Boats" and "rivers"" in line i are contrasted with "ships" 
and "seas" in line 2; and "clouds" and "sky*" in line 3 
are contrasted with the words in both the preceding lines, 
and so should be stressed strongly. Perhaps a slight nod 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 73 

of the head would be natural in readmg "Prettier far 
than these." 

5, Make pauses whenever they seem natural and sig- 
nificant. For example : There is only a brief pause after 
line I, because line 2 is joined closely to it by the 
conjunction "and," which shows that the two thoughts 
it connects are similar in meaning. But a longer pause 
should be made after line 2, because the next line brings 
in a new thought introduced by the conjunction "but." 
There should be no stop after line 3, because it must be 
closely coupled with line 4. Lines 7, 8, and 9 should be 
read with only a slight pause at the end of each line, 
because the idea is not complete until line 10 is read. 

6. The predominant literary quality in this lyric is the 
music of the words when read aloud. To make it musi- 
cal, make your voice a true musical instrument. Try to 
make your tones as soft and pleasant as possible; the lan- 
guage itself will help you. The out-of-door life that 
country people lead is inclined to roughen their voices; 
but most of us do not have musical voices because we 
do not want to have. If you, country teacher, will read 
this poem, and others like it, over and over, training your 
voice to be low-pitched and melodious, lingering on the 
broad vowels and musical consonants, "making your Eng- 
lish sweet upon your tongue," as Chaucer quaintly says — • 
after a time you will drill out of your speaking voice all 



74 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the ugly, rough, harsh, rasping tones, and your reading 
will be unto your children, "as a very lovely song of one 
that hath a pleasant voice," as Ezekiel says. 

Have I over-emphasized this matter of oral reading? 
I do not think so. I simply cannot conceive of a satis- 
factory lesson in literature in the grades, especially in 
the primary grades, unless the teacher reads the selec- 
tion, and reads it with taste and appreciation. 

TcacJi'uig the Poem 

^^>ll. you have, we will suppose, prepared yourself to 
teach this poem, "The Rainbow." Now. how teach it to 
country boys and girls? Your study of the selection has 
already told you how, in part; let me but make a half 
dozen suggestions. 

I. Neither your pupils nor yourself have ever seen 
the ocean, perhaps, or even sailboats on the river. Your 
children, then, lack some of the previous impressions 
upon which you would ordinarily base your instruction. 
But in the introductory chat which should always precede 
the teaching of a lesson such as this, you can certainly 
give the class rather definite ideas of the sea and of sail- 
ing-ships; and certainly you can work back from the 
concept of the sky and clouds to that of the ocean and 
ship — though that is, of course, reversing the order of 
the poem. Pictures of the sea will be of help here. As 
for the bridges, most of your pupils are familiar enough 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 75 

with them, although they are not "as pretty as you please," 
as in England, the scene of this poem. At any rate, make 
sure that the children see the resemblance between the 
ships on the ocean and the clouds in the sky and between 
the bridge and the rainbow. Draw out by questions this 
resemblance, and do it before you attempt to read the 
poem. 

2. If possible, teach this selection on a suitable day — 
either when beautiful white clouds are overhead or when 
the rainbow is visible. Touch very lightly on the phys- 
ical cause and nature of the bow; but you may allude to 
the thought of the rainbow as being the visible of God's 
promise not to destroy the world with another flood. You 
■might also refer to the Greek story of Iris, the goddess 
of the rainbow. But do not, by too many diversions, 
injure the central aim of the lesson: to teach this little 
poem in such a manner as to make a lasting impression 
on the hearts of your children. And do not be too impa- 
tient to see the results; one of the most serious hin- 
drances to good teaching of literature is our natural, but 
harmful craving to figure the profits. Be content in the 
faith that the results from good literature are permanent 
and inevitable. Teaching a poem to children is much 
like sowing clover to plough under; it may not yield any 
returns at the time, but harvests in the future will be 
more abundant. If, years hence, a farmer, driven to 



76 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

shelter by a summer storm, sees the bow of beauty bridg- 
ing the heavens and murmurs this httle lyric which you 
taught him — you have had upon that person an effect 
literally incalculable. 

3. Read the poem aloud to the children. Read it as 
naturally, as effectively, as musically, as possible. 

4. Then have your pupils read it aloud. We are pre- 
suming this is a "sight" poem — that is, your pupils have 
never seen it before. If it is not in your readers, write 
it on the board ; then have it read aloud by each member 
of the class. 

5. Ask your pupils to commit the poem. If you have 
introduced it well, have made the children feel and think, 
and have read it well, it is already lodged in those sen- 
sitive hearts entrusted to you to quicken. It is easy to 
over-do memory work; but undoubtedly that child who 
has scores of such little gems treasured up will be a richer 
man — richer in noble feelings, richer in worthy works. 

6. Keep the poem before the children for a time and 
recall it to their minds at every suitable opportunity. 
Teach them, for example, this other little poem of Miss 
Rossetti's : 

If all were rain and never sun, 

Xo bow could span the hill ; 
If all were sun and never rain, 

There'd be no rainbow still. 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 11. 

And when you teach this, coax back the first poem to 
memory and compare the two. And, by the way, make 
comparisons of this sort whenever possible. If a phrase 
or a line or an idea in one selection is reminiscent of 
another selection, lead the children to note the resemblance. 

The Query Box 

I. Do you think it a good plan to set to music the poems 
taught in class? 

Yes, I think it an excellent plan — if you can do it. But it 
requires an unusual musical and artistic gift to set words to 
music. A poem may be beautiful, a selection of music may 
be beautiful, and the two may be mechanically fitted ; but the 
spirit of the two may be so diverse that their union is an 
offense to art. Probably the rural teacher should not at- 
tempt to have his pupils sing a poem studied in class. 

But the country teacher should, by all means, make every 
effort to train his pupils in music. Not a day should pass 
without some singing. This whole subject lies without the 
limits of English in the Country School, so I shall not at- 
tempt to discuss it — farther than to point out what is obvi- 
ous : Since music and poetry possess, as forms of art, so 
many common qualities, he who loves music very often loves 
poetry. Both are artistic expressions of emotion, both make 
their effect through sound, both depend somewhat upon the 
element of time. The one complements the other. Both, 
therefore, are important factors in developing culture in 
country children. The teacher should love music and should 
teach his pupils to sing; he should love poetry and should 
teach his pupils to read it — but he had best not try to teach 
the two together. 



78 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

2. Is it possible to require too much memorizing of 
poetry? 

Yes, possible. But if the teacher is careful to select only 
the best, and if the children show a reasonable appreciation 
of what is selected, it is very unlikely that too much poetry 
will be required. The trouble has been that we have often 
assigned for memorizing a poem that the children could not 
understand or appreciate, often requiring memorizing before 
class study. The average child will commit to heart a sur- 
prising number of poems with ease — if only he loves the 
poems, 

3. Would you have one pupil correct another's reading? 

If it is a reading lesson, I should, though I should insist 
that the corrections be made after the reading. But if it is a 
literature lesson, I should want the children to close their 
books while the one pupil is reading. The chief corrections 
that should be made to an oral reading of a selection of liter- 
ature are general criticisms concerning the interpretation : 
emphasis, quality of tone, phrasing, etc.; and these correc- 
tions should be framed as questions which will reveal to the 
young reader the error he has committed. So far as possi- 
ble, and by every means possible, let us endeavor to create 
the impression that the child, when reading literature, is feel- 
ing and interpreting an emotion, and that that is the one 
important matter. 

4. Should the children he taught to distinguish the differ- 
ent types of literature? 

Xo. There is no reason why the children should be taught 
the difference between a lyric and a narrative poem, or be- 
tween a fairy story and a nursery tale. If only they enjoy 
the literature they read and study, if only they feel deeply; 
that is sufficient. Neither should children be expected to 



LITERATURE IN LOWER GRADES 79 

tell the reasons for studying each selection. The teacher 
must be able to recognize the different forms and to realize 
what each selection should do for his children, so that he 
may nourish them upon a "balanced ration" ; but the children 
themselves should not be expected to see the value of each 
poem and story or to classify the literature into types. As 
they grow older, perhaps they will, of their own impulse, 
study the differences between the types; but if they never 
take an interest in such matters, it is of little moment. 

5. Would you teach the Bible in the country school f 

If there is sectarian opposition to the teaching of the Bible, 
it is best for the teacher not to attempt it. It is never wise to 
arouse religious prejudices ; they may be foolish, but since 
they exist, they should be taken into account. 

Even if there be no sentiment against teaching the Bible 
in the public school, it is not desirable, perhaps, to spend 
much time in Bible instruction. The most that the country 
teacher can do in the public school is to tell the choice stories, 
to read some of the beautiful passages — in general, to give 
the children an interest in the "Book of Books." The coun- 
try teacher should consider the Sunday school a sort of sup- 
plement to the public school, and should there give the con- 
secutive, thorough instruction in this book, the knowledge 
and love of which is so important to the intellectual, moral 
and religious life of any child. 

One thing is certain : country people should be acquainted 
with the Bible. As has been often pointed out, it makes a 
strong appeal to rural people. It is, in large part, the record 
of an agricultural and pastoral people, whose founder and 
whose greatest king were shepherds, whose life was almost 
wholly rural. Some of the most beautiful psalms are full of 
pictures of the country, some of the most impressive parables 



80 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of Jesus make use of rural imagery and occupations. Who 
except one that has lived in the country can appreciate to the 
full the Twenty-third Psalm, or the parable of the Sower? 
The Bible is the peculiar property of country folk ; let us love 
it and revere it as our book. 



CHAPTER THREE 

LITERATURE IN THE UPPER GRADES 

In the previous chapter I discussed the types, contents, 
and quaHties of Hterature for country children in the 
lower grades, and gave suggestions for teaching. I shall 
follow the same general plan for literature in the upper 
grades. 

Difference Between Lower and Upper Grades 

Just a word of caution. The use of the terms, "lower" 
and "upper" grades is likely to be misleading. The 
growth and development of a child is, normally, regular 
and uniform from about the age of six until the period 
of adolescence, which begins somewhere between the 
ages of eleven and fourteen. This period marks the 
great change in the life of the individual; during these 
years childhood ends and maturity begins. This change 
is so striking that it is obvious. But the changes that 
have taken place in the child up to this period are not 
clearly marked. We know that the child develops from 
six to twelve, but we cannot notice a very decided develop- 
ment from year to year — a year's growth in a child can- 
not be determined like that in a tree : by examining the 

81 



82 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

rings. But the fact that we cannot see the child, or a 
stalk of wheat, changing from day to day or from year 
to year, does not mean that a change is not taking place. 
For two or three years before adolescence Nature is pre- 
paring the child for that great evolution. \\'e cannot 
stop to discuss the development of the child, though every 
teacher should be infonned on this important subject. 

The child of twelve is a far different person from the 
child of six — that is very evident. All this is to remind 
ourselves that the phrases "lower" and "upper" grades 
are not to be considered as signifying exact periods in 
the child's life. The literature for the lower grades and 
that for the upper grades overlap. The literature for a 
pupil in the third, fourth, or fifth gxade should have in 
part the characteristics of the literature for the lower 
grades, and in part the form and characteristics of the 
literature for the upper grades. In other words, as the 
child's nature changes, the literature should change. The 
eight grades are divided into two sections because it is 
convenient, not because it is exact. 

The Country Teacher's Advantages in Grading 

And here let me remark that the country teacher has 
a better opportunity than the city teacher to shift and 
shape the work — in literature and in every subject — 
according to the slow, or rapid, development of the indi- 
vidual child. If it is evident that a bov in the fourth 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 83 

grade is ready for fifth grade reading and literature, the 
teacher can promote him to that grade in the one subject. 
This should always be done. It may make the grading and 
classification of the school more difficult to have a pupil 
in the fourth grade in some studies and in the fifth grade 
in others ; but the inconvenience caused the teacher is not 
comparable to the advantages that will accrue to the child. 
Keeping in mind, then, the mental reservation that 
there really is no distinct line of demarcation between 
the literature for the lower grades and that for the upper 
grades, let us see what are the types of literature for 
upper grades. (The types given here refer only to litera- 
ture used in class. The nature of the books read outside 
of class, of books that should be in the school library, 
will be discussed in another chapter.) 

Types of Literature 

I. Ballads. These are of two kinds: Popular ballads 
and literary ballads. The former originated among the 
common people hundreds of years ago. Nobody knows 
who wrote them; in fact, it is not likely that they were 
written for a long time. They were handed down from 
one generation to another by word of mouth, changes 
creeping in, probably, with each re-telling, until finally 
they were written and fixed in permanent form. The 
literary ballad is a poem zvrittcn by some one poet in 
imitation of certain characteristics of the popular bal- 



84 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOI. 

huls. The best of those possess the same quahties as the 
older ballads. In general, a ballad, whether popular or 
literary, tells, in an artless, direct, almost childish fashion, 
some pathetic, humorous, or exciting short story in 
poetry. The usual themes are "fierce wars and faithful 
loves." The characters are frank, simple, primitive. 
unsophisticated — moved b>' intense elemental passions 
and high ideals of honor, constancy, chastity, bravery. 
The best ballads are surcharged with emotion — that 
strong, natural emotion to which the child from ten to 
fifteen years responds. The best ballads are picturesque, 
too. and send the imagination of the youth chasing over 
the scenes of the story. When properly read, they ha^■e a 
rough-and-ready rhythm, much simple alliteration and 
rejietition, and a musical grouping of sounds. Ballads 
are not usually the product of the gTcat artist: but. if not 
artistic, they at least are not artificial. One of the most 
noted popular ballads is "Chevy Chase;" an excellent 
literar}- ballad is Longfellow's "The Wreck of the 
Hesperus." 

J. OtJicr Xarratirc Pocnis. These should deal, in 
general, with the same subject matter, and play upon the 
same emotions, as the ballad. They are usually more 
carefully finished: but the charm for the boy and girl 
lies not in the polished workmanship so much as in the 
storv and the characters. Obviously, the poem should 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 85 

not be saturated with pathos. Scott, Southey, Campbell, 
Macatilay, Longfellow, and Whittier have written delight- 
ful narrative poems for children. 

3. Lyrics. A lyric poem does not tell a story, though 
it may hint at one; it exists merely to express an emotion. 
Naturally, then, the proper lyric for the country boy and 
girl in the upper grades is the lyric that arouses their 
finer, stronger feelings — patriotism, self-sacrifice, bravery, 
devotion to duty, love for animals and farm life — 
altruistic emotions, in short. If they deal with love 
between man and woman, it- should be with the larger, 
more obvious phases of the emotion. Lyrics are very 
valuable for country children, whose emotional natures 
are sometimes starved — even as the emotional natures of 
city children are often gorged. 

4. Humorous Verse. This is to take the place of the 
Mother Goose jingles and Nonsense poetry taught to the 
younger children. It is evident, I think, that any person 
is much happier if he has a lively sense of humor; and 
it is equally evident that whatever natural humor one has 
can be developed by the proper kind of literature. The 
humorous verse for country children in the higher grades 
should be of the boisterous, hearty, jovial kind; but it 
should never be malicious and sarcastic. A few poems 
of the desirable flavor are : Cowper's "John Gilpin's 
Ride," Browning's "The Pied Piper," Hood's "Nelly 



86 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Gray" and "Sally Brown."' Lowell's "The Courting," 
and Holmes' "The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay." 

5. Hero Stories. These are many and varied ; but in 
them all the chief interest is centered in the exploits of a 
hero, a militant hero — a knight, a king, a demi-god — 
Beowulf. Arthur. Siegfried. Hercules, Jason. Ulysses, 
Joshua — some of the doughty worthies of the gallant 
days of derring-do. Many of these stories haye been 
retold by modern authors and are fixed in immutable 
form. Ha\ythorne's "Wonder Book" and "Tanglewood 
Tales." Kingsley's "Greek 'Heroes.'' Lanier's "King Ar- 
thur," and Pyle's "Robin Hood" are specimens of this 
type of literature. Of course, the appeal of these stories 
is mainly to boys — boys in the hero-worship period. But 
this hero-worship period should never end ! Carlyle 
says: "Xo nobler feeling than admiration for one higher 
than himself dwells in the breast of man." "It is the 
yiyifying influence in man's life." "Society is founded 
on hero-worship." "Heroes." states Emile JMontegiit. 
"are those individuals who draw to themselves and absorb 
within themselves the characteristics and the thoughts 
of the common people, who either sum up an epoch or 
create it. and who make themselves almost immortal by 
making themselves masters of their times." We all need 
to know and admire these "INLasters of their times." The 
country bov and the count rv man will be the better for 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 87 

anything that helps in the development of the spirit of 
hero-worship — though country folk can assuredly claim 
that they are more devoted to their heroes and more 
prompt to recognize the heroic than are their city friends. 
Let us not fail, however, to introduce the country boy 
to the great heroes of history and legend. He needs an 
ideal of flesh and blood, a dauntless battler against 
paynims and giants and dragons, "gorgons and hydras 
and chimeras dire." 

6. Wonder Tales. These include the more mature 
fairy stories and all the frankly supernatural and imagina- 
tive — in prose the Arabian Nights stories, and in poetry 
such stories as Drake's "The Culprit Fay," Bryant's 
"Sella," and Coleridge's "The Ancient Mariner." These 
Wonder Tales are to replace the nursery stories and fairy 
tales of the lower grades, and to continue the develop- 
ment of the child's imaginative faculties. As I have in- 
sisted throughout, the country child needs a great deal 
of the fantastic, the highly imaginative to counteract the 
strong matter-of-fact environment in which his life is 
cast. The city child is not only provided with more litera- 
ture of this sort, but he also has opportunities of seeing 
the improbable and tbe imaginative in moving picture 
shows and in such theatrical productions as "Peter Pan." 
Let us compensate the country child for the lack of these 
opportunities by bringing to him as much of this sort of 



88 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

literature as possible — and there is a large amount of it 
in existence. 

7. Orations. Such noble expressions of deep feeling 
as Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech, Patrick Henry's well- 
known "Give me liberty or give me death" oration, and 
Webster's "Supposed Speech of John Adams" should be 
known to every American schoolboy, whether in city or 
country. Pupils in the upper grades are fully old enough 
to feel the thrill of patriotism, which, after all, is but a 
W'idening of the altruistic emotions to include the nation 
instead of merely family or neighborhood. Our pupils 
are familiar with the stirring events of our history; in 
geography they have learned somewhat of the size and 
the grandeur of the United States; they should be taught 
to feel an intelligent and desirable pride in what is, in 
most respects, the most wonderful country on earth. And 
in order to produce this feeling of just pride the great 
emotional expressions of this pride should be known and 
loved. Perhaps the average boy and girl will not fuljy 
comprehend this literature; but they will understand 
enough to set their hearts beating with the worthy feel- 
ing of independence. Sir Walter Scott says, "I rather 
suspect that children derive impulses of a powerful and 
important kind from reading things which they do not 
comprehend. * * * Set them on the scent and let them 
puzzle it out." No fear lest a great oration will be mean- 



LlTl'KATURl': IN Ul'l'EK eiRADJiS 89 

inglcss if il is well tuuglit — taught so that the fcchngs 
of the chiUhxMi arc awakened. The eiiiolional powers 
often soar over the plodding intellect and arouse to nohlc 
action long hefore soher reason has coni[)leted his quib- 
blings and douhtings. 

8. Informal lissays and SkctcJics. These should be 
of the familiar, discursive tyi)e, on everyday themes. Nat- 
urally, they should deal with subjects closely related to 
country life and character. Some of Washington Jr- 
ving's are excellent ; many of those in the Sketch-Book and 
most of those in Bracel)ridge Hall discuss the delights of 
country life in an easy, graceful style that should charm 
any boy or girl in the early teens. A few of Charles 
Lamb's are suitable for children, a few of Hawthorne's 
and ;l few of Thackeray's. Country children also like 
some of John Burrough's sketches on nature subjects. 
Many great literary men have expressed their best ideas 
in the informal essay or sketch, and country children 
should he introduced tt) this type of. literature before they 
leave school. 

9. Short Stories. These arc not merely stories which 
are short, not merely anecdotes. "A short story is a 
brief, imaginative narrative, unfolding a single predomi- 
nating incident and a single chief character; it contains a 
plot, the details of which .are so compressed and the whole 
treatment so organized as to produce a single impres- 



90 ENGLISH IX THF. COUNTRY SCHOOL 

sion."* Much of the great literature of the modem world 
is being- expressed in the short-story form, and the eoun- 
try child has a right to the best that literary artists are 
producing. The boy or girl on the farm who does not 
know Hawthorne's "Groat Stone Face" and "The Three- 
fold Destiny" — to name but two among many. — \'ol- 
taire's *'Jeannot and Colin." Stevenson's "Will o' the 
^lill," some of ]Mary W'ilkins Freeman's stories of New 
England life, and short stories of this nature, has missed 
some of the most inspiring literature for country folk. 

Rnt the country child should know the famous short 
stories, regardless of whether or not they make an appeal 
to his particular world. Re should be acquainted with 
"The Legend of Sleepy FIollow." and "Rip \'an Winkle." 
with some of Kipling's, some of Bret Harte's. some of 
Conan Doyle's. In general, the short story suitable for 
the upper grader is one that develops a simyle theme, with 
plainly marked characters and plenty of action. Subtle 
analysis of personality, certain phases of the passioti of 
love, the pessimism and cynicism that characterizes many 
of the best short stories for adults — all this should be 
avoided in the literature for children. Much of Edgar 
Allan l\>e's work in this vein, artistic though it is. must 
be omitted from the child's reading course . "In my 
very early boyhood." says the late Andrew Lang. "Edgar 
Poe made me feel terribly frightened with 'The Fall of 

* Esenwein's "'Writing: the Short-Story." pajjo oO. 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 91 

the House of Usher.' Is that the book to place in the 
hands of a morbid infant of ten summers?" But dozens 
of excellent short stories are suitable for school children; 
and the unity of impression, the singleness of aim and 
conciseness of treatment make this form a useful and 
effective literary type for young people. 

Subject Matter of Upper Grade Literature 

Hiose are the nine types of literature most suitable 
for class study in a country school. What should be,' in 
general, the subject-matter of this literature? 

Nature and Country Life 

I. Much of the literature of this period should be 
devoted to Nature and to the charms of rural life. A 
bright young farmer once remarked that Whittier's 
"Barefoot Boy" had done more to keep him on the farm 
than had all the bulletins of the Department of Agricul- 
ture. Perhaps that was an exaggeration. But there can 
be no doubt that if the boys and girls in the country 
could behold, in the mirror of poetry, the wonderful 
attractiveness of the life to which they are often indif- 
ferent, they would not be so eager to rush away to the 
city. "But would you idealize country life?" a con- 
scientious rural teacher once asked me. Surely; idealize 
country life. We must idealize life in even the most ideal 
conditions, if life is to satisfy. We must hold steadily 



02 FNCa.lSH IN TMK COIN TRY SCHOOL 

before our iniiuls the luaiiitokl advantages ot existence 
on the tann — heahh. fresh air, active, out-of-door lalx'ir. 
fretHioni from superior authority, opportiuiity for the 
Ix'st family relationship, the peace and tranquillity, the 
pR^ximity to Nature; and \ve must ignore the undeniable 
dis;\dvantages attendant on this inixle of living. Country 
folk should thank fortune that practically all literature 
idealizes country life, and niral teachers should see to it 
that their children are brought into contact with the best 
of. this. 

I he Xature-literatiire for cv>iintr\" children in the up- 
jxT grades should l>^ of the cultural t\~i^e. Xow is the 
time for the pR"> found analogies between Nature and 
Imman life: for Bryant's "Waterfowl." for Tennyson's 
"Bugle Song." for Bums' "To a Field Daisy." and "To a 
Mouse," for Wordsworth's "Three Years She drew ' 
and "The Daffodils." and for dozens of others, wherein 
the poet uses some natural object or animal to introduce 
or illustrate a great tnith — ^wherein he delivers Nature's 
niess;\gvs. Now is the time for enforcing the lessons to 
K^ found in Gray's "Elegy." Goldsmith's "The Deserted 
Village." and dozens of others, wherein the poet points 
out the nobility of rural character and the importance of 
the agricultural classes. 

Much prose exists also that will reveal to the city- 
enamoureil K\v and girl the advantag^es of niral life. 
Much great literature, K>th prose and poetr>-. has been 



ij'ii<;i-:A'riJRi': in ui'ri':i< (ii<Ai)i':s 93 

written by men and women who were reared on a farm; 
hnt it is only when they look back upon their childhood 
that they realize that the country life is, in many essen- 
ti.al respects, the most nearly ideal mode of existence. 
Cannot we teach that lo our hoys and j^irls so that nirniy 
of them may remain on the farm, happy and contented 
with their life? Someone has said that it takes culture 
to appreciate country life and that culture can be ob- 
tained in America only in the cities. That may have been 
true; it may be true now. l>ut if rural teachers can 
measure up to their opportunities, it will not be true in 
the future. 

Idealization of Women 

2. The literature for the boys in the hij^dier j^rades 
should idealize woman. Most country men are not very 
chivalric, it has been said. They take it for j^ranted that 
women should w^ork harder than they really ought tcj do; 
they are not tender enough and affectionate enough. Most 
country men are faithful and devoted and kind; but 
many of them have never been trained in the arts of 
courtesy and chivalry. Perhaps this view is ern;neous. 
At any rate, country boys should be mmrished upon liter- 
ature which will subtly insinuate ideals of true gentility 
and refinement in their relation to womankind. Love of 
man for woman has been the inspiration and theme of 
much great literature, though, obviously, a large propor- 



94 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

tion of it cannot be utilized for children in the public 
school. But the broader aspects of the subject should be 
dealt with in the literature of this period: chastity, devo- 
tion, tenderness, honor, reverence. The teaching of this 
theme requires rare delicacy and tinesse, but the teacher 
must not shirk his responsibilities. It is certain that the 
sex instinct begins to develop during the latter years of 
the school course, and it is equally certain that our civili- 
zation demands the postponement of mating for several 
years after the course is tinished. It is the plain duty of 
the public school, in country and city, to equip its boys 
and girls with high ideals of sex and sexual relation- 
ships. We must not awaken these powerful impulses, 
but we must guide and restrain and temper them, when 
Nature has asserted herself. The teacher, by careful 
selection of literature and by deft, sympathetic instruc- 
tion through that literature, must do all in his power to 
turn the strong current of emotion, so fraught with pos- 
sibilities for good or evil, into the right channels. 

Patriotism 

3, The literature for the upper grades should contain 
a good deal of patriotism. Certain critics, who have 
witnessed the obtrusive Americanism of our countrymen 
while touring European countries, seem to be a little 
afraid that we are too patriotic. They tell us that the 
United States is not so superior to the other countries of 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 95 

the world that we need boast continually of our superior- 
ity. Well, most of us will live all our lives in America; 
it is a magnificent country, with a glorious past, a great 
future. We should be proud of our citizenship, proud of 
our independence; and the country school should inspire 
the country boy and girl with a strong feeling of loyalty. 
I do not see how we can do too much in this regard; if 
we make Americans so patriotic (?) that they are offen- 
sive when abroad, we must console ourselves with the 
reflection that only a small fraction of one per cent of 
us ever go abroad to make ourselves offensive, and that 
while we remain at home we can display our patriotism 
as much as we please — so long as we do not offend 
against the laws of good taste. Few nobler, finer emo- 
tions are given us than the love of country; let us develop 
it in our school children by bringing before them high 
ideals of conduct and virile expressions of feeling, as 
found in our literature. 

History • 

4. The literature for the upper grades should deal with 
the events of history — not American history only, but 
the history of the entire world. It is a real document, 
detailing the failures and achievements of our struggling, 
upward-looking, forward-fronting human " family. Cer- 
tain events in this record are full of heroism, of self- 
sacrifice, loyalty, persistence; such events are full of in- 



96 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

spiration in themselves, and can be used as models for 
emulation. Surely any country boy will be a better man 
if he takes to heart the lesson in Miller's "Columbus" — 
not because he will ever be called upon to perform an 
achievement like discovering a new continent, but be- 
cause he will certainly be called upon to persist in some 
worthy endeavor in the face of opposition and discour- 
agement. Surely any child will grow into a better man 
if he feels the quiet heroism showed by the lad in Brown- 
ing's "Incident of the French Camp," or because he 
appreciates the spirit of obedience to higher authority as 
displayed in Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade." 
Of course, literature cannot make a hero out of every 
boy, a heroine out of every girl. Life, experience, is the 
best developer of heroism, as of every excellent human 
quality. But the study of good literature is the best 
possible preparation for the experiences of life. Can 
anyone doubt for a moment that a soldier in his first 
battle will fight the more boldly if some gallant martial 
poem is sounding in his mind — Barry's "The Place Where 
Man Should Die"' or Bryant's "The Battlefield" ? And 
does anyone doubt that the farmer can apply to his daily 
life the inspiration of any example of heroism, if only 
the teacher has known how to teach the farmer boy the 
truth that the commonplace round of the days and weeks 
requires heroism as genuine, if not so striking, as the 
great crises of life? Literature based on history has all 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 97 

the value of history — that is, fact; and all the value of 
literature — that is, truth. 

Optimism 

5. The literature for the upper grades should be bright 
and cheerful. There is little place in the school curricu- 
lum for the pessimism of Matthew Arnold or the mor- 
bidness of Poe. An occasional selection of what may be 
called "hopeful melancholy" is desirable; but, in general, 
the outlook on life should be optimistic. There is an op- 
timism that is blatant and pretentious, that does not face 
the facts of life intelligently and manfully; and there is 
an optimism that confronts sorrow and disappointment 
with a bold eye and dauntless courage, and while it recog- 
nizes the ills of life, looks hopefully past them. This 
kind of optimism realizes that the fundamental laws of 
existence are often inexorably cruel, but calls for sub- 
mission to those laws as the sole means of gaining tran- 
quillity. Such poems as Clough's "Submit," or Tenny- 
son's "Crossing the Bar," or Browning's "Prospice" are 
full of a beautiful resignation that is sure to impress itself 
upon the hearts of children. No matter if they do not 
understand completely. In a day of gloom these hope- 
ful little expressions of mingled grief and trust may 
return to the memory like sentences from the sacred 
Scriptures. 

During the foregoing discussion of the subject-matter 



98 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of literature for the upper grades I implied several dif- 
ferences between the literature for the lower grades and 
that for the upper. Perhaps I had now best state those 
differences : 

Diffcroiccs BcticcL)! Literature for the Upper and the 
Loicer Grades 

1. There is proportionately less poetry in the upper 
grades. Of course, the older children must have quite a 
good deal of poetry, it is so perfectly adapted to children 
and to the functions of the school curriculum. But so 
much excellent prose exists for children in the higher 
grades that poetry must give up some of its claims. 

2. The literary units are longer in the upper grades. 
Each selection should deal with only one theme, of course ; 
but the theme often is of such a nature that it demands 
fuller treatment than the selections for younger children. 
As a general rule, the selections for younger children 
should be short enough to be mastered at a single lesson, 
though this is not always practicable. 

3. The literature for the upper grades is more com- 
plex, more mature. The characters are more highly indi- 
vidualized, though they should be far from subtle and 
should undergo little development. The plot is more 
complicated, though it should still be quite easy to follow. 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 99 

The road may turn and wind, but it should be plainly 
marked. 

4. The predominant emotions of the literature for the 
upper grades is more altruistic — ^that is, the feelings ex- 
cited by the reading are wrapped about people other than 
the reader. Admiration for a brave man or a daring 
deed, hero-worship, love of country — ^these are emotions 
that work toward freeing the child reader from the prison 
house of self and leading him out into the liberty of love. 
Young children are normally selfish; men and women 
should be unselfish; and literature has an important part 
in developing the unselfish emotions in upper grade chil- 
dren. 

5. For all these reasons and others, literature of the 
upper grades is more intellectual. It is still highly emo- 
tional, of course, else it is not literature. But the mental 
reaction that follows a well taught literature lesson in 
the upper grades is marked. The emotion the child feels 
incites him to think, to compare, to reason, to remember, 
to imagine. 

6. In the upper grades every reading lesson should 
be a literature lesson. This may not be possible in the 
lower grades; but the rule should be strictly followed in 
the more advanced classes. Of course, the pupils are to 
read much that is not literature in connection with their 
other school work; the point is that the recitation period 



100 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

should be consecrated to literature, not just reading mat- 
tor. 

Xeedless to say. many minor differences exist between 
the literature for a primary grade and for an advanced 
grade — ditTerences of content and of form. But enough 
has been said to indicate the nature of the literature for 
the upper grades. This one problem, then, remains: 
How to teach literature in the higher grades, fourth to 
eighth, in the country school. I cannot solve this prob- 
lem — in fact, the solution varies with each selection and 
each class, but I shall make some suggestions. 

TcacJiifhj of Literature in the Upper Grades 

1. The voice of the teacher is still an important factor. 
But during this part of the school course the children 
themselves should be encouraged and trained in the de- 
lightful art of reading aloud. I say "delightfur* art. 
if so be that the teacher is able, through his own pleas- 
ing, natural reading, to kindle a desire to read well aloud. 
and then is able to direct this desire. Try. then, to get 
the boys and girls in the upper grades — slow, stolid, 
inexpressive boys and girls though they often are — try to 
get them to burrow to the heart of a poem or story, to 
feel the emotion, and then to manifest that emotion by 
spirited, s>Tnpathetic. natural oral expression. 

2. But good oral reading is not possible until the heart 
of the reader is stirred bv the emotion of the selection. 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 101 

Let us remember that. If we force our pupils to read 
aloud before they have feeling and thought to express, 
we are sure to produce stilted, inexpressive, unnatural 
reading — the "sing-song," the "rant," the "snow-plow," 
the "hop-skip-and-jump," and all the other school-bred 
monstrosities. Let us see to it, then, that the boys and 
girls feel before they read. And how make them feel? 

3. In assigning a lesson, tell your class what to look 
for. I illustrate this later in my suggestions concerning 
the teaching of two specific poems. In general, each 
selection you take up in class should be assigned for study 
the preceding day, so that the pupils will have plenty of 
time to master it — the method contrasting sharply wdth 
that used in the lower grades, where the study should 
follow the class work. In the lower grades the teacher 
must expect to do most of the work in the literature les- 
son ; but throughout the more advanced grades the study 
and analysis of the selection should be shifted upon the 
pupils. Very rarely, however, should the pupils be ex- 
pected to set to work intelligently without some pre- 
liminary suggestions from the teacher. In the eighth 
grade, of course, it should be the aim of the teacher to 
train his pupils so that when they leave school the fol- 
lowing year they may have attained the power to analyze 
a selection independently — as someone has expressed it, 
the teacher should strive to make himself unnecessary. 



102 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

4. In assigning a selection and in studying it in class, 
ask questions that bear directly on the country child's 
experience. The children must understand with the ideas, 
the experience, they already have: they learn by using 
what they know. Let us make sure that our pupils are 
seeing clearly the connection between this bit of literature 
and their previous life. 

5. Since literature is composed largely of pictures, we 
must see that the pictures are clear and vivid. This 
means leading the children to use their imagination. For 
example : Here is the first stanza of ]Mrs. Hemans' "The 
Landing of the Pilgrims" : 

The breaking waves dashed high 
On a stern and rock-bound coast, 

And the woods against a stormy sky 
Their giant branches tossed. 

Country children that have never seen the sea cannot 
bring this picture clear before the inner eye. But they 
can imagine, with the aid of the teacher, the height of 
the waves and their violence as they dash against the 
rocky shores, so hard and cold and stem and inhospitable. 
i\nd they can fill in the background easily enough : the 
great limbs of the trees, twisted and contorted by the 
fierce wind, gesturing and threatening like the arms of 
mighty giants: all this standing out against the sullen 
storm clouds. The children can paint beautiful pictures 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 103 

on the canvas of their imagination — but the teacher must 
suggest, insinuate, question, draw out, guide. 

6. Since the Hterature for the upper grades makes in- 
sistent appeals to the child's unselfish emotions, we must 
see that those appeals reach the heart of the reader. Good 
literature always arouses good emotions. Sometimes 
these emotions are general — love of Nature, patriotism; 
sometimes the emotion is more definite. But in either 
case the ethical call should ring out loud and command- 
ing. When we perceive that the child hears that appeal, 
then our work is done. We have prepared that future 
man and woman to be a better farmer and farmer's wife. 
For the happy life, and therefore the useful life, is the 
life filled with noble emotions, unselfish emotions, which 
engender noble, unselfish deeds. As Wordsworth 
phases it, 

We live by admiration, hope, and love, 

And even as these are well and wisely placed. 

In dignity of being we ascend. 

7. In planning your literature work for the upper 
grades, as for the lower, you will do well to follow the 
seasons and the activities of the neighborhood. In Sep- 
tember teach, for example, Helen Hunt Jackson's "Sep- 
tember" and Caroline B. Southe/s "Lady-Bird"; in Oc- 
tober, Allingham's "Robin Redbreast"; in November, 
Alice Gary's "November" ; and so on throughout the 



104 EXGUSH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

school year. The hohdays should he celebrated with the 
appropriate poems, and the various occupations of coun- 
try life from fall till spring should, as they come and go. 
be made the occasions for studying- carefully selected 
literature on these themes. A word of caution may be 
advisable, however. In these days a gTeat deal of very 
mediocre writing for school children is being done. At 
ever}- Thaiiksgi\4iig time, for instance, school journals 
are tilled with so-called poetr}- for the occasion. ]^Iuch of 
this is haniiless enough, except that it presents poor 
models of poetr}- and interferes with the forming of good 
taste: btit the countr}- teacher is too busy to spend his 
time and the time of his school on anything but the 
very best. There is so much that is excellent that we do 
not need to fritter a^^■ay our precious moments with 
make-believe literature. The countr}- teacher will do well 
to purchase such a book as Bertha Hazard's "Three Years 
With the Poets" (^Houghton Mifflin Co.. Boston"), and 
follow the seasons with the very best of poetr\-. 

S. Require your children to commit some literature — 
much poetry and a few- choice orations. In the lower 
gxade you should specify what selections are to be mem- 
orized: but in tlie upper section of school it is well to 
allow the children to choose their OA\-n passages for 
memorizing. Since certain tliemes and certain bits of 
literature appeal to certain children, the task of com- 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 105 

mitting can be made easier and more enjoyable if the 
teacher will allow the pupils some option. Often a coun- 
try teacher makes a mistake in assigning memory passages 
by requiring the children to learn his favorites, thus 
ignoring the individuality of his pupils. Especially do 
country teachers err in requiring children to memorize the 
ethical lessons in literature, which probably is another 
manifestation of intense practicalness. They ask the boys 
and girls to memorize the last stanza of Bryant's "Water- 
fowl," or Holmes's "Nautilus," or Tennyson's "Bugle 
Song," because they feel that this is the heart of the 
poem. They sometimes pass over the more beautiful 
passages in order to concentrate on the useful. 

Of course, the ethical message is more immediately 
useful and certainly more generally applicable. Like- 
wise the Proverbs of Solomon are more immediately 
useful and more generally applicable than the Psalms of 
David. Yet the Psalms are more eventually useful, and 
since they are not so universally applicable, they make a 
stronger appeal in the particular idea or emotion they 
communicate. The fact is, we err as much in trying to 
read immediate results from our literature as a farmer 
does who plants his steep hillside in grain rather than 
apple trees, because the grain brings speedier returns. 
The chief profit to be sought in the study of literature is 
the formation of character; and character is a plant of 
slow growth. And perhaps it never produces fruit to be 



106 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

sold at so much a bushel ; perhaps it produces only beauti- 
ful blossoms — gentleness, kindliness, aspiration for the 
good and noble and lovely, in Nature and in human char- 
acter. Of course, this does not mean that we should not 
require our pupils to commit the ethical lessons of many 
poems, because often they are beautiful as well as useful; 
but we must not be constantly seeking for a translation of 
the beautiful into the language of the moral and the 
didactic. Have your children memorize much literature 
then. If you teach a selection well, if your pupils feel 
the emotion, the mere after-act of memorizing will not 
be an arduous task. An emotion is a powerful lever; it 
can produce a remarkable amount of work with little 
expenditure of energy — like the old-fashioned sweep, it 
easily draws water from a deep well. 

Model Lesson 

Perhaps I can make the ideas of this chapter more 
concrete and usable by giving illustrations of the teaching 
of two poems. Both these poems I have taught to coun- 
try children, following the general plan outlined here. 

The first poem I have selected is Sir Walter Scott's 
"Jock of Hazeldean" : 

I. "Why weep ye by the tide, ladie? 
\Vhy weep ye by the tide ? 
I'll wed ye to my youngest son. 
And ve shall be his bride : 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 107 

And ye sail be his bride, ladie, 

Sae comely to be seen" — 
But aye she loot the tears down fa' 

For Jock of Hazeldean. 

2. "Now let this wilfu' grief be done, 

And dry that cheek so pale ; 
Young Frank is chief of Errington 

And lord of Langley-dale ; 
His step is first in peaceful ha', 
I His sword in battle keen" — 

But aye she loot the tears down fa' 

For Jock of Hazeldean. 

3. "A chain of gold ye sail not lack, 

Nor braid to bind your hair. 
Nor mettled hound, nor managed hawk, 

Nor palfrey fresh and fair; 
And you the foremost of them a' 

Shall ride our forest queen" — 
But aye she loot the tears down fa' 

For Jock of Hazeldean. 

4. The kirk was decked at morning-tide, 

The tapers glimmered fair ; 
The priest and bridegroom wait the bride. 

And dame and knight are there : 
They sought her baith by bower and ha' ; 

The ladie was not seen ! 
She's o'er the Border and awa' 

Wi' Jock of Hazeldean. 

This poem, though probably not the best of Scott's, is 
good literature. 



U18 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Litcniry Ciiaractcristics of the Poan 

1. It is full of genuine emotion — simple, natiu'al, hu- 
man emotion, not the subtle, sophisticated sentiment of 
the supercivilized. The devoted, constant love of the 
heroine for Jock of Hazeldean is the theme; and school 
children, though they are not able to appreciate this fully, 
are able to appreciate the loyalty of "the ladie." and ad- 
mire her for cleaving to her humble lover even when 
commanded and entreated to wed the young lord. The 
author feels the story, and somehow he shows us that 
he is speaking from the heart. Scott did not compose the 
first stanza. He heard it when he was young and it so 
totiched him that when he was older he wrote the re- 
mainder. It haunted him. in a sense, until he had given 
artistic finish to the fragment. The poem. then, is genu- 
itie — and that is an adjective applicable to all good poetry, 
all good literature, 

2. It is strikingly musical, (a) The lines are short. 
consisting of alternate three and four accents, (^b") The 
rlmne order is simple: with the exception of stanza I. 
lines I and 3. lines 2 and 4, lines 5 and 7, lines 6 and 8. 
rlnme — that is. the longer and the shorter lines are 
paired of¥. (c) There is some musical alliteration. For 
example: In Une j, stanza III, "b" is alliterated: in line 
3. "m" and "h" are alliterated in pairs: in line 4, **t*" is 
alliterated. (^d> Only the broad, sonorous vowels are 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GR/VDES 109 

used in the poem; the thin, unniusieal, piping vowels, such 
as short-"i," short-"e," short-"a" are almost eliminated. 
The broad Scotch vowels are especially musical, (e) The 
last two lines of each stanza, when well read, fall upon 
the ear with a pleasing, musical tone. 

3. It makes answerable demands upon the imagina- 
tion. A story is told by hints. A Scotch maiden of high 
but poverty-stricken family sits weeping. Her lover, 
Jock of Hazeldean, is absent from Scotland for the time; 
and while he is away, her hand is sought by Frank, the 
young lord of Langley-dale. The old lord of Langley 
comes to her first ; then her own father commands her to 
cease weeping for her absent lover and to marry her 
noble suitor (stanza II). Finally the young noble him- 
self entreats her to become his bride, promising her every- 
thing that her heart can desire (stanza III). But to all 
she turns a deaf ear, plainly showing that her heart is 
over the water with Jock of Hazeldean. At length, how- 
ever, Jock not returning, she gives in to promises and 
persuasion and yields a reluctant consent to Frank. But 
on the very morning of the wedding day she flees over 
the Border with Jock, who has secretly returned. This 
story, or this essentially, does the poem tell when read 
with the imagination. 

4. It paints clear pictures — clear, at least, to the reader 
who allows his imagination to fill in the details. The 



no ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

lovely lady weeping piteoiisly for her absent sweetheart, 
her steadfastness, her slow and uncertain yielding to im- 
portunity — this is a distinct picture. And very vivid 
indeed is the scene in the church on the bridal morn. 

Hozi' to Teach tlic Poem 

This poem should be assigned for study and then dis- 
cussed the following day. It needs no special introduc- 
tion, though you will do well to dovetail it in with other 
reading along the same line. Assign it with certain 
directions and questions. For example : 

1. Tell the story hidden in this poem. Let each one 
work this out by himself ; then tomorrow we will have all 
the different versions and see who has the best one. 

2. Look up all the unknown words in the large dic- 
tionar}-. (The teacher had best pronounce here the 
Scotch dialect words.) 

3. The first stanza is part of an old poem. Do you 
think Sir Walter Scott has made the last three stanzas 
like the first? (By* the way. a version of the old ballad 
is given in Child's "English and Scottish Ballads." If 
you can get a copy of that, you might read the old poem 
and see if it is as good as Scott's.) 

4. Be able to give an imaginary picture of the lady in 
the poem; of her father: of Jock of Hazeldean. 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 111 

5. Imagine the scene at the church on the wedding 
morn, while Jock and his "ladie" were fleeing "o'er the 
Border and awa'." 

6. Does this story remind you of another by the same 
author? (If your class has not read "Lochinvar," you 
might take it up soon for comparison with this.) 

7. Read the poem aloud, trying to make your voice 
tell the story. Imitate the voices of the old lord, of the 
lady's father, of young Frank. 

When the lesson is being recited, take up these differ- 
ent topics and expand and vivify the pupil's knowledge 
and feelings. See if you cannot start a lively discussion 
on some phase. Have the boys and girls read the poem 
aloud; then read it yourself. Make the scenes plain, 
make the story vivid, make the poetry musical. 

Dramatising the Poem 

This would make a good play. Five persons would 
take the principal roles. The lady sits weeping; she is 
approached by the three persons hinted at, who speak to 
her the words of the poem ; but she remains quietly weep- 
ing. At last she seems to give in. The scene now changes 
to a church, bedecked for a wedding. But the bride does 
not appear. All run from the church, only to discover 
that she and Jock have fled. A simple dramatization of 
the story is easy; but nothing else makes such a deep 



112 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

impression on the mind. Try it some dark, tiresome day. 
and see if it does not inject new life into all of you. 

Composition JJ\^rk on the Poon 

Have some composition work done on the tlieme of 
the ston\ A written composition telling the story; a 
description of the scene at the church; a letter from the 
lady to her father: Jock's account of the event, as told by 
himself to his children years afterward — any of these 
would be suggestive subjects for written work. 

And let us remember that this is not primarily knowl- 
edge work or memory work. Accuracy, reasoning power, 
knowledge, a retentive memors*. are all desirable: but 
our first motive, always in teaching literature should be 
to arouse the imagination, to develop healthy, noble 
emotions. 

A Second Model Lesson 

The second illustration is George R. Sims's ''The 
Lights of London To\\-n." It is inferior in poetic quali- 
ties to the preceding poem, but the graphic teaching of its 
central thought should secure it a place among the favor- 
ites of ever}- countr\- boy and girl. 

The way was long and weary, 

But gallantly they strode. 
A country lad and lassie. 

Along: the heavv road. 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 113 

The night was dark and stormy, 
But blithe of heart were they, 
For shining in the distance 
The Lights of London lay. 
O gleaming lamps of London, that gem the city's crown, 
What fortunes lie within you, O Lights of London Town. 

The year passed on and found them 

Within the mighty fold, 
The years had brought them trouble, 

But brought them little gold. 
Oft from their garret window, 

On long, still summer nights, 
They'd seek the far-ofif country 

Beyond the London Lights. 
O mocking lamps of London, what weary eyes look down, 
And mourn the day they saw you, O Lights of London Town. 

With faces worn and weary. 
That told of sorrow's load. 
One day a man and woman 

Crept down a country road. 
They sought their native village. 

Heart-broken from the fray; 
Yet shining still behind them. 
The Lights of London lay. 
O cruel lamps of London, if tears your lights could drown, 
Your victims' eyes would weep them, O Lights of London 
Town. 

HoTx: to Teach the Poem 

Teach this poem in connection with your Geography 
or Agriculture work, or fit it in somehow with the regu- 



lU EXGl.ISVT IX THK COUNTRY SCHOOL 

lar work of the school. A rural teacher is remiss in his 
duties if he does not often discuss with his advanced 
pupils the advantages and disadvantages of living in the 
country, as compared with the conditions in the city. 
In one of these discussions ;^ which may be started in 
almost any school subject") introduce this poem. Write 
it on the board and have the pupils copy it in their note- 
books. Call their attention to the fact that a story is 
told in this poem, each stanza containing a part of the 
ston,\ Ask them to imagine the details : how old the 
"lad and lassie" are. in the first chapter of their life, and 
how old the "man and woman" are. at the conclusion 
of their adventure; what is the relationship between the 
couple — are they brother and sister, or husband and wife?; 
why they leave the country-, and why they return to it; 
difference l>etween their approach to London and their 
de^xirture from it — in their faces, their gait, their feel- 
ings. Ask them also to examine the words carefully 
and to try to determine the significance in each word and 
phrase: "the mighty fold"; "They'd seek" — how .nw^; 
"victims' eyes" — in what respect are these persons t'lV- 
tims: why "'cflcatning lamps" on the first stanza, "mock- 
ituj lamps" in the second, "cruel lamps" in the third. Ask 
the pupils to study out all these points and then to read 
the poem aloud. 

The next day return to all these points and both test 
the knowledsfe of the children and vivifv that knowledsre 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 115 

l)y, other suggestive questions. Before the discussion is 
ended — and it should be a discussion, wherein all take 
free part, not simply a series of questions and answers — 
be sure that every child has a distinct image of the events 
of this story. 

The Story the Poem Tells 

The poem, when read with the understanding, runs 
about as follows : A young man and woman, who have 
lived all their lives in a small village, have lately been mar- 
ried. Both are tired of rural life, so, since they have 
heard much of the delights of the great city, of the for- 
tunes to be found there, of the gaiety and glitter, they 
resolve to leave their friends and relatives and go to the 
metropolis to live. After walking several days they come 
in sight of the lights of the city. The roads are muddy, 
the night is dark and stormy, but their hearts are uplifted 
by the thoughts of the happiness and fortune awaiting 
them within the radiance of those far-off lamps. 

Years pass on. Do they find the happiness and for- 
tune? No; they have found only misery and penury. 
From the window of the garret, which is their home, they 
look far away out beyond the city, trying to catch even a 
glimpse of the village they left so gladly, talking over the 
peace and contentment of their former life. The lights 
gleam as brightly as when they first sighted them, but 
now they seem mocking and treacherous. 



116 ENGLISH IN THE COINTKV SCHOOL 

At lon^ih thov ^ivo up the tis;lu. "Fho city has not 
broug'ht thcni joy and riches, as they expected; they 
resolve to return to their native village. They have held 
on so long' only Ixvaiise they hope that they may yet suc- 
ceeil and Ixvanse they shrink from going* lx\ck home to 
CvMitess their mistake and their failure. But. at last, 
broken in spirit, they leave their g-;uret and turn their 
backs npon the city. There they go, creeping along the 
roa«.l o\ er which many years before they strode so conti- 
dently — ;\n old man and \von\ari. aged with sorrows more 
than with \x^ars. 

At that point in the road where they caught the tvrst 
glimj^se of the lights, years jxist, they halt and look Ixick. 
The lights are still gleaming, but now it seems a cruel. 
bitter, taunting gleam. And as the couple think of the 
high hopes with which they tirst g-azed upon those lights, 
as they retlect uixhi the years of duKlgery, of misery, of 
ix^verty. as they reali::e the trag-e^ly of those \*ears of 
wasteil. mined life, they Ivgin to weep bitterly. Then 
they iMovl on toward their old home. \Miat do they 
find there ? \\*e do not know. Perhaps friends aiid rela- 
tives who help them start life ag-ain. ^x^rbai^s a sulxlued 
happiness, which can be called happiness only in contrast 
to what they have exjx^rienced. The city has wrecked 
two more li\tes. 

That is the story, which should be pieced tog-ether with 
hints from the |xxMn and welded with the imagination. 



LI'I'l'lRA'J'Ukli: JN UI'I'KR GRAJJJCS 117 

After your discussion has revealed all the sad st«jry, liavc 
the cuin])Iete narrative told hy some one or twcj of the 
class. 

If your work has been well done, some mcnihcr of the 
class may express doubts as to the veracity of the poem 
as a ])icture of real life. Now, we know this is (jnly one 
side U) the (|uestioii; we know that ])ersoiis frcjni our 
neighborhood have succeeded in the city; we kn(jw that 
the city has advantages which a rural coniniunity can 
never possess. We should not leave a false impression 
in the minds of the pupils. We can do tliis, however; 
we can teach our pupils this truth : *Mwery young ])erson 
who longs for life in a great city should read this 
message thoughtfully and resolve to face stern realities 
wherever he may seek to do his life work."* That is 
enough to give pause to the young man or woman who 
sees nothing l)ut drudgery and isolation in farm life and 
nothing but pleasure and an easy road to fortune in city 
life. The poem presents a poetical picture of real life; 
let it carry home its message. 

Oral Reading 

After the discussion has brought out all these points 
have the poem read aloud by several members of the 
class. This poem is not great literature; consequently 

*This sentence is quoted from a discussion of tliis p^jein in 
Searson and Martin's "Studies in Reading," University I'ui^- 
lishing Co., Chicago. 



lis ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the sounds are not very suggestive of the ideas. But if 
your children have felt the emotion, they will compel the 
sounds to hint at the thoughts. They will draw out the 
first line of stanza one, to imitate the length of the road; 
they will emphasize "gallantly" and ""strode" in the sec- 
ond line to imitate the contident manner of the young 
couple : they will make the contrast between lines live and 
six in the first stanza and between lines three and four in 
the second stanza: they will stress each word in line six 
of the second stanza, to convey the impression of the 
dragging of the hours: they will render the last two lines 
of each stanza in such a way as to indicate the feelings 
which the lights inspire at different periods in the his- 
tory of the man and woman. This emphasizing of cer- 
tain words, this slowing up and accelerating of the move- 
ment, together with the changing of the pitch of the 
voice to express varying emotions is one of the important 
phases of oral reading, and one of the most difficult. 
Perhaps, the teacher will need to read the poem as it 
should be read, and then ask the children .to imitate him. 
Like every other art. oral reading needs constant drill. 
One other matter you will have to give careful attention 
in this poem is the natural tendency toward sing-song. 
With most of us the feeling for rhythm is so strong that 
it urges us to utter the words in a poem in a monotonous 
regularity, which is destructive of the meaning. As we 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 119 

read we should, of course, be conscious of the rhythm, 
but we should feel at hljerty to vary the movement at 
any time; because we happen to be keeping step to band 
music is no reason we should march into a puddle of watec 
that lies in our path. We should feed young children 
upon Alotlier Goose and oilier rjuantitativc jingles to de- 
Nelojj the sense of rhytlim; IaU as their musical taste im- 
proves w^e should introduce the higher musical ideas: 
phrasing, the ritard, the accelerando, the sudden pause — 
variety, in brief. In this particular poem, for example: 
the alliteration of "w" in the first line of stanza one, of 
'T' in the third line and in the eighth line — these and 
other alliterations in the poem should be stressed to bring 
out the musical value ; but it is not necessary to read the 
lines containing these words in strict tempo. Lines two 
and four of the first stanza contain the same number of 
syllables, but line two should be read in about half the 
time required for line four. It should not be pronounced 

"But rjal\a.nt-ly they strode," 
rather, 

"But gallantly they strode" ; 

That is, we hurry over the word "gallantly," slurring the 
last syllable, in order to make the voice carry out the 
idea in the words. Again, lines five and six in the second 
stanza should not be read in exact tempo : 



120 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



rather, 



"Oft fro]ii their aarret rcu/dow, 
On Jong, still siu/inicr }iights" ; 

"Oft from their ^cTrret ziiudozi.'. 
On lo}ig, still siimmeT nights/' 



In short, the rh}thm should be interrupted whene\er the 
thought requires it. After we learn this and have ac- 
quired some skill in reading, we get much more pleasure 
from feeling the rh}-thm beating away in the back of our 
mind, so to speak, and yet departing from it to obtain 
a certain effect. This is true of other details of rhythm. 
After we have subordinated our sense of rh}'thm we do 
not allow the feeling for time to make us pause at the 
end of a line. \\'e read, for example, lines one and two 
of the second stanza rather like this : 

"The year passed on 

And found them within the mighty fold." 

That is. we ''phrase" words — we pronounce together 
those words that compose a grammatical, or. rather, a 
logical phrase, breaking up the rhythm to do so. This 
may sound complicated, but when once the idea is per- 
ceived by the children and they have been drilled and 
trained, after they learn to disregard the strong pull of 
the rh}-thm and to substitute the subtler and more artis- 
tic intimations of the thotight. they make rapid progress. 
In educatinsr the children to do this it is necessarv that 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 121 

the teacher instruct both by precept and example ; he must 
explain in simple, untechnical language the principles of 
good oral reading, basing his instruction on the specific 
specimens of literature studied, and he must illustrate 
these ideas by his own reading. It is almost impossible to 
make good oral readers out of our pupils unless we are 
good readers ourselves; that is one of the arts that can 
be acquired only by personal contact — it cannot be 
learned from books and is rarely attained by the child 
through his own efforts. 

Memorising 

After the poem has been read by several members of 
the class and by you, assign the poem for memorizing. 
This is one of those bits of literature that should be 
stored away in the mind, to exercise an influence in 
after years. As other selections of literature and other 
mentions of this theme in other studies are met, call back 
this poem, so that it may be re-examined and re-appreci- 
ated in the light of new knowledge.' 

Conclusion 

Does all this seem worth while? Perhaps it may 
appear that, since there is so much to be learned and so 
little time, so much attention should not be squandered 
upon this poem — which, after all, does not teach any 
facts. Just there is one place country teachers are likely 



122 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

to go ^v^o^g. Mere facts can be mastered any time; 
there is no easier task than learning facts — if a person 
wants them. "There's the rnb." The really important 
work of the teacher is to stimulate a desire to kuozc, to 
arouse an interest, to awaken an emotion. We have had, 
in the country and in the city school, too much grinding 
away on facts — facts for their own sake, facts unrelated 
to interest and to life, ^^'e waste time in school by fail- 
ing to inspire a motive for acquiring facts, and we send 
our children out of school without incentive to know, 
without intellectual curiosity. The teacher who succeeds 
in quickening strong, compelling, healthy emotions is the 
teacher needed in the country school. 

The Query Box 

J. Is not some of the literature you recommend too full 
of the fighting spirit^ 

In the letter in which this question was asked the writer 
intimated that in these days of the universal peace move- 
ment it would be well to eliminate from the reading of 
children all laudatory references to battle. It is a natural 
view, but, I am convinced, an erroneous one. In our en- 
deavor to create a perfect state of society, we must never 
make th^ mistake of opposing Nature. Now, Nature has 
decreed that every individual shall have a period of child- 
hood, during which he is to pass through the various stages 
which civilization itself has passed through in its evolution 
from barbarism. Shorten the period of childhood or elimi- 
nate from it any of the experiences and emotions that be- 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 123 

long to it, and you thwart Nature in her plans for the 
mature individual. There is no road to perfect manhood 
but the road through childhood. Nourish the child on the 
emotional food that his nature craves, prevent him from 
devouring the unhealthful and poisonous, and Nature her- 
self will conduct him through the successive stages from 
infancy to maturity. 

One of the emotions which Nature has decreed that the 
child shall feel is the emotion arising from the theme of 
combat — fighting, danger, swords, w^ounds and blood. Nor 
can this fighting spirit be nourished on anything else. A 
child cannot grasp the conception of spiritual conflicts, of 
moral battles, of social courage. If, for example, the indi- 
vidual is to feel the Christmas spirit, he must, when a child, 
be taught to believe in a concrete Santa Claus, which, as he 
learns later, is the embodiment of the Christmas feeling of 
generosity. There is no way of attaining to a knowledge of 
the abstract except through the concrete. If we wish the 
man and woman to possess that essential quality, the fighting 
spirit, we must nourish the boy and girl upon martial emo- 
tions. Neglect this, and we deprive the individual of that 
virility, that delight in conquering, that joy in overcoming 
difficulties, which is the very foundation of success in every 
field of endeavor — in farming, as in business life. As. Dr. 
F. E. Clark says (quoted in Dean Fisk's "The Challenge of 
the Country"), farming furnishes an ideal "moral equiva- 
lent of war" ; but only in case the farmer boy has had his 
fighting spirit roused by the strong, definite emotion rising 
from real fighting, in experience or in literature. 

Besides, even if we could develop strong men and women 
without nourishing the childish love for combat upon stir- 
ring martial literature, and if we should eliminate all litera- 
ture dealing with the glorious aspects of war, we should be 
eliminating some of the most effective literature ever writ- 



124 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ten. The martial element has been the theme and the 
inspiration of so much great literature that we could ill 
afford to cut out of a child's reading all laudatory refer- 
ences to the subject. Love, religion, and war are the three 
great themes of literature, as they are the great movers of 
human activity; and we should not ignore such a universal 
theme and feeling. 

I do not believe, then, there is any real danger in giving 
the children in our country schools much literature dealing 
with war. The country boy and girl must have their feel- 
ings awakened, and we should not deprive them of any 
literature that will quicken their emotions into life. 

2. Should Tit' teach the biographies of authors, zi-heii ue 
study their nvrksf 

As a general rule, the lives of authors are uninteresting 
to children. The biographies children care most for are 
those of warriors, pioneers, adventurers, explorers — the 
active, full-blooded spirits. Children care little for heroes 
of the study, the laboratory, the schoolroom; they delight 
rather in men and women who do things. For this reason 
the life of the average author is devoid of interest to the 
average child. ^Moreover, one needs to know very little 
about an author to appreciate his writings. Occasionally a 
bit of personal history will throw light on a particular selec- 
tion : and, naturally, these anecdotes should be known to 
the teacher and should be told to the children. But the 
study of the lives of literary men is not the study of litera- 
ture, and often it hinders rather than assists. 

5. Hozi' can a teaeJier arouse i>i his pupils a cjenuine hn-e 
for poetry f 

The correspondent who made this inquiry stated that he 
could inspire a love for reading and that he usually made 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 125 

readers out of his pupils, but that they never chose poetry 
to read. That, perhaps, is a common experience, in country 
or in city. We spend a good deal of our time in school 
teaching poems, yet we rarely inculcate a love for poetry. 
I suppose fiction will always make a stronger appeal than 
poetry, from the very nature of the two and from the very 
nature of men and women. But, inasmuch as the greatest 
literature of the world is poetry, in one form or another, it 
is evident that any one who leaves it out of his reading is 
failing to get the best. "How can the teacher arouse in his 
pupils a genuine love for poetry?" It is a difficult problem. 
I believe I have stated, in this chapter, about all the methods 
I am acquainted with. The teacher must himself love 
poetry : that is the first requisite. Then he must so teach it 
that it appeals to the children as being enjoyable and beau- 
tiful, as containing exalted thoughts expressed in an artistic 
manner. He must train his children so that they can extract 
the thought and feeling from poetry, easily and completely. 
He must have them commit some of the most striking poems, 
after they have been intelligently and sympathetically s^^udied 
in class. He must choose poems that have as much narra- 
tive element as possible. He must teach music, that the 
children may have their artistic natures developed by an 
art kindred to poetry. It is a difficult problem — so difficult 
that no teacher can succeed with all his pupils. But it is 
possible for the teacher so to teach poetry to his children 
that they will, in after years, turn occasionally to a favorite 
poem or a favorite poet and taste the rarest joy that a reader 
can experience. And, as the country is the place to enjoy 
poetry, and as country people have, in general, less oppor- 
tunity to obtain inspiration from other forms of art, the 
country teacher must make a special endeavor to instill a 
love for poetry in the hearts of his children. 



126 ENGLISH IN THE CO L'NTRY SCHOOL 

7. Arc pictures of any raiiit- in tcaciii;uj litc>\Uiirrf 
Pictures are of value, in teaching literature, in two ways. 
They are \-aluable, tirst, as being artistic expressions of emo- 
tion. The development of appreciation for pictures is sure 
to assist in developing appreciation for any artistic expres- 
sion of the beautiful. He who learns to love good pictures 
learns also to love literature, music, architecture, sculpture — 
all the forms of art. In short, acquaintance with pictures 
and a liking for them implies general culture, without which 
literature fails to achieve its highest results. Pictures are 
valuable, secondly, as direct and immediate aids in inter- 
preting particular selections of literature. Poems are often 
founded on pictures or inspired by them, as Markham's 
"The Man with the Hoe" was based on Millet's famous 
painting of the same name; and many pictures are either 
inspired by certain poems or, at least, deal with the same 
subject. Blake's painting of the Canterbury Pilgrims is 
based on Chaucer's description of the group; Watts's "Sir 
Galahad" is an attempt to tell with colors what Tennyson 
had already expressed with words; Douglass' "Fvangeline" 
and Wontner's *T.oma Doone" are imaginative portraits of 
these famous characters in literature. Even when the pic- 
ture has no close connection of this sort with a selection of 
literature, it may treat a subject that is used in literature, 
so that the two explain each other. It is possible for a 
teacher who is acquainted with pictures to tind appropriate 
pictures for many selections of literature. Inasmuch as 
intelligent reading is. from one standpoint, but a reconstnic- 
tion of the various pictures suggested in the literature, an 
appropriate picture is an aid to reading. There is. perhaps, 
a danger that, if children have a real pictitre before their 
eyes, they will neglect to constmct pictures in their mind : 
but this certainly is not a danger we need fear in tlie country 
school. 



LITERATURE IN UPPER GRADES 127 

The rural teacher, then, will do well to acquaint hnnself 
with pictures. Fortunately, excellent copies of nearly all the 
famous paintings can be obtained very cheaply, so that there 
is no reason country teachers and country children should 
not be familiar with the best in this realm of art. Later in 
this book (See page 271) I give a list of pictures suitable for 
country children, a list made out by careful students of this 
subject. The country teacher will do well to purchase some 
of these, frame them with passe-partout, and hang them on 
the walls of the school room. He will do well, also, to pur- 
chase for his own use, pictures that will illustrate particular 
selections of literature which he teaches. Secure catalogs 
from some of the large picture companies and select the 
pictures by their titles. Every teacher of elementary English 
should have a good-sized collection of pictures of this sort 
to lend to his pupils. 

5. Should country children study long literary selections 
in class f 

As I have said, nearly all the class work should be on 
short selections. The unity of any bit of literature is injured 
when only a part of it is studied at a time. But it is evident 
that some of the best literature is too long for one lesson. 
It is certainly better in a case of this sort to study the selec- 
tion on successive days and endeavor to grasp the central 
unity after the selection has been completed. The study of 
long selections has the value of training the children in com- 
prehending more complex stories and ideas. Of course, the 
teacher will select the literature especially suitable for 
country children : in poetry, such selections as Lowell's "Sir 
Launfal," Burns's "Cotter's Saturday Night," Whittier's 
"Snowbound," etc. ; in short stories, Irving's "Rip Van 
Winkle," "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," etc. As to novels 
and romances, the country teacher's time is too limited to 



US FXGT ISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ponwit Iviin to study any of these in class. Rut he can and 
shouKK as I explain in the next chapter, introduce his pupils 
to these in various Nvays and talk thetn over with the lK)ys 
atid girls. Some rural teachers have tried some of Shake- 
speare's easiest plays and have had tolerable success. The 
"Julius C;vsar" and part of the "Midsummer Night's Dream" 
and "As You Like It" are perhaps the best for elementary 
schools. In general, the cv">uutry teacher will do well to put 
nK>st of his time on the briefer selections : if he takes up a 
longer one. he had best require much of the reading to be 
done outside of class and reser\-e the recitation period for 
discussions and for study of the more im|X'>rtat\t chapters or 
incidents. Later, the names and addresses of publishers who 
issue cheap editions of the longer classics are given. (^Soo 
page 2og.) 



CTIAPTKR FOUR 

Till': SCHOOL Lir.RARY 

^■J Rural rroblcin 

One of the most important problems connected with 
ciuuitry life in the Lhiited Slates is that of keeping;' on the 
faiin the ambitions, intelhj;ent, capable yonns;' men and 
women. In many sections o{ iVmerica, especially sec- 
tions where great cities abonnd, those young people most 
highly talented leave the country at the earliest possible 
moment and betake themselves to the city, llere they 
dexelop then- talents and de\'ote to mban ci\ili/,ation those 
energies and those intellectnal and moral jiowers which 
would ha\e been so serviceable to the rural communities 
the)- have left. 

Now, no one should blame these young men and 
women ; they are merely seeking what seems to theiu the 
best sphere for happiness and service. 1'hey leave the 
farm because the_v (\o not bud on the fruau the opportuni- 
ties they feel they need. They leave the farm because 
they ctMisider life on the farm empty, narrow, isolated, 
monotonous, full of drudgery. They leave the farm be- 
cause farm life does not challenge their powers, does not 

129 



130 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

appeal to them as worth while. It is their right to leave ; 
the blame is to be placed upon the conditions that have 
nrged them to leave. 

A second problem is that of developing on the farm an 
aggressive, yet cnltm'ed personality. The city not onlv 
carries away the best : it also presents more opporinnities 
for shaping militant, forceful characters. Of two 
brothers, alike in endowments, the one that goes to the 
city usually surpasses in qualities of leadership the one 
that remains on the home farm. Experience moulds char- 
acter; and the richer, fuller experience of the city has 
called out powers that might, in the comury. have 
remained forever latent. 

It is evident that the solution of both these problems 
is identical. Make fann life satisfying in the deepest 
meaning of the word, and boys and girls will stay on the 
farm and will develop more completely their natural 
powers. If city life is more attractive, country boys and 
girls will go to the city. If country life does not offer 
the proper environment for developing personality, the 
city will always excel in leadership. There is no escape 
from those conclusions. 

Of course, the city must have and will have its fair 
quota of coiintPk^-bred boys and girls. As Dr. Tosiah 
Strong has shown in his "'The Challenge of the City." 
urban America will continue to outstrip mral America 
in the economic race. Conditions of life are such that 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 131 

thousands upon thousands of country Ijoys and girls must 
go to the eity to live. Even if this were not true, the city 
would always offer a strong challenge to the more ad- 
venturous, restless type of young man and woman in the 
country. We must concede that it is impossible entirely 
to dam the great stream of rural youth that rush from the 
hills and valleys to empty themselves into the urban 
ocean. The city needs constant rejuvenating from the 
country; the city housewife depends upon the country- 
man for food hardly less than the mammoth industries 
of the city depend upon the brain and the muscle of coun- 
try boys. Let the city have its just proportion ; but let 
us make farm life so attractive that the city will not 
entice away the best we have, and so stimulating that we 
will be able to compete with city life in developing virility 
and culture. 

What Is Wrong With the Farm? 

Just what is wrong with farm life? Just why do 
young men and women leave their homes in the country, 
often comfortable homes, to shape their own future, to 
work out their own fortunes. Much has been written 
on the subject and many inquiries and investigations con- 
ducted. In general, the reasons that stand out as most 
universal are three. Because work on the farm involves 
much drudgery. Because life on the farm does not ap- 
peal as being interesting — does not provide the element 



132 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of conflict, does not bring one in contact with much of 
the world, does not challenge one's intellect and furnish 
incentives to struggle and conquer. Because life on the 
farm is lonely. These three reasons are interdependent : 
because drudgery is involved, farm life does not appeal 
as interesting; because it is lonely, it fails to challenge; 
etc. But one or more of these fundamental reasons 
actuate most young people to leave the country. 

Tlic Remedies 

Along with the discovery of the causes have come 
many plans for remedying conditions in the country, so 
that rural life may retain a fair share of its youth and 
develop it to the fullest possibility. Drudgery has been 
eliminated by hundreds of inventions and labor-saving 
devices. Farm life has been made more interesting by 
the formulation of a science of Agriculture and the con- 
sequent lifting of farming to the dignity of a profession. 
It is made challenging by the discovery that success in 
farming requires shrewdness, foresight, energy^ co-opera- 
tion, and a vast fund of scientific knowledge — in short, 
many of the highest intellectual powers. Moreover, as 
farming becomes more profitable, the margin of leisure 
is extended, and country folk have more time and money 
to devote to travel and to the pursuits of culture. All 
this is revolutionizing farm life. In many sections of 
America the country is more attractive than the city. Ir 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 133 

it too much to hope that the time will come when in every 
corner of our land a fair proportion of the most highly 
gifted of country-bred boys and girls will find their field 
of greatest service and of keenest enjoyment on the 
farm? 

The Problem of Loneliness 

But what of the problem of the loneliness of rural 
life? Will such marvelous improvements as those men- 
tioned disperse the isolation that country people find so 
irksome? Even if farming is profitable, dignified, and 
interesting, will it compensate for the depressing absence 
of human society? We are naturally social creatures. 
Can we be satisfied with any mode of existence that does 
not bring us into close and frequent contact with men 
and women? Well, we are improving in this respect 
also. Within the last few years many agencies have been 
at work to destroy the isolation of farm life. Improve- 
ment in roads, the use of automobiles in the country, 
interurban trolley lines, the rural telephone, rural mail 
delivery, parcels post, the Agricultural Fair, the Grange, 
the consolidated school — all this is doing wonders in 
bringing farm homes closer together and in providing 
that social intercourse which human hearts crave. 

The Rural Teacher's Duties 

Now, what can the rural teacher do in helping to solve 
these problems in rural civilization? Much. He can 



m KXGLISH IX Till- COUNTRY SCHOOL 

briui;" into pioniiiiciioo those studios that boar directly 
I'.pou farm lite: .Vgriculturo. \amro Study, etc., and he 
can sc> shape all the studios that they make a close con- 
nection with rural conditions, ^loroovor, ho can make 
his school one ot the social centers of the community and 
can carry into the community a hii^hor degree of culture 
and a stronger personality than is possessed by the aver- 
age member of the comnumity. These, however, are 
matters we cattnot discuss here, \\hat can the teacher of 
Kuglish do? Or what can the teacher do through the 
luiglish studies ? 

J7ii' Rcadiiur Habit 

In previous chapters I have shown how the teacher can 
utilize literature in inculcating love for Nature and the 
dignity of country life; and later I show how he can 
direct and motivate composition work so that it appeals 
to coutury boys and girls. Here let me introduce the 
pn'mar}'" thought of this chapter: one of the most power- 
ful factors in making niral life less lonely is the improve- 
ment in the country home library and the development 
of the reading habit among country people, and one of 
the truest services the rural teacher can render his com- 
mimity is in instilling in his pupils a love for books and 
in training them in hvibits of reading. Books are not 
people, but they are the nearest substitutes. Books do 
not completely satisfv our social instincts, for we cannot 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 135 

talk to them or react on them. But they can fill our 
leisure moments with interest and amusement; they can 
Ijring the thoughts and emotions of the great world near 
to us; they can emancipate us from loneliness and the 
deadening round of monotony. If country life is to be 
rich and full enough to satisfy, country people must de- 
velop the reading habit — and this habit must be begun in 
the rural school. 

Country People Not Readers 

Is it not remarkable that one of the most delightful 
methods of filling leisure hours has never been widespread 
in rural districts? Ignoring for the time the educative 
and cultural value of reading good books, is it not strange 
that the entertaining value of reading has not made a 
stronger appeal to country people? We complain that 
our lives are barren, monotonous, lonely, yet we neglect 
the very best means, aside from social intercourse, of 
crowding the days full of a rich variety of intellectual 
and emotional delights. To the lover of books a desert 
or an uninhabited island or the most secluded farm home 
is a world teeming with life, provided he is furnished 
with his favorite literature. Loneliness? There is little 
loneliness for him who loves books and possesses the 
books he loves. We country folk, who most need books, 
we have made least use of them. The libraries in our 
country homes are small, cheap and poor — not comparable 



136 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

to the libraries in the homes of our city friends in the 
same social and financial circumstances as ourselves, 

JVJiy Country People Do N'ot Read More 

^^lly do country people not read more books and better 
books? One reason is often given: they do not have the 
money to spare to purchase books. That this partially 
accounts for the fact is proved by the increase and im- 
provement in the country home library that often follows 
greater earnings by the farmer. But that this does not 
entirely account for it is proved quite as conclusively by 
the fact that many a farmer in good circumstances does 
not lay out any money in books, and that even in suc- 
cessful years he invests his surplus gains in machinery, 
stock, land, or buildings, rather than in a library. 

Another reason often given is that country people do 
not have time to read. They work so hard during the 
day, it is said, that they are too tired to read at night. 
Now, it is undoubtedly true that during a part of the 
year farm folks are too busy to read much and are too 
fatigued to read even when they have the leisure. But 
the average country man has more spare time in the win- 
ter than the average city dweller. And Sunday is theirs. 
For Sunday is not so sacred that we dare not read good 
books — good fiction, good poetry, as well as reading mat- 
ter that is distinctively religious. Country people have, 
generally speaking, plenty of time to read. The true 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 137 

reason for their devoting so little time to reading is fur- 
ther to seek. 

Still another reason — and one that comes closer the 
truth — is that reading does not appeal to the average 
country man or woman as worth while. Their life makes 
them utilitarian in theory and practical in action. A field 
of corn, a new plow, is something real, actual, useful; a 
book represents no concrete wealth, stands for nothing 
calculable or marketable. Building a good fence is doing 
something practical, valuable, necessary; reading a good 
book is frittering away time. An hour spent in cultivating 
a field with a hoe is an hour profitably and sensibly used ; 
an hour spent in cultivating a mind with a book is an 
hour thrown away. Many a countryman feels a veritable 
scorn for books and a veritable contempt for a reader. 
Partly as a result of this attitude, and partly for reasons 
that cannot be here enumerated, many country people 
feel that reading "novels" is a vicious habit, to be 
frowned upon for moral reasons. 

Reading Habits Should Be Formed in Youth 

Of course, it is very easy to present telling arguments 
against this attitude. But it is not arguments that are 
needed. The only way to convince the farmer that read- 
ing good books is worth while is to persuade him to read 
until he forms the habit, and the only way to do that is to 
train him in the reading habit while he is yet young, while 



138 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

he is yet in school. To be sure, some men and women, 
reaHzing the importance of reading, do endeavor to estab- 
lish reading habits; but it is usually only a pathetic en- 
deavor. Consciously to attempt to form a habit of this 
sort is nearly always such an arduous task to an adult that 
it defeats the primary purpose of reading: to give pleas- 
ure. A habit so formed must be striven for so strenu- 
ously that it usually manifests itself in awkward, forced, 
conscientious plodding and misses the spontaneity, the 
naturalness, the unconscious activity of the habit formed 
in youth. 

Hozi' to Secure a Rural School Library 

One of the largest services, then, that the country 
teacher can render is to train his boys and girls in proper 
reading habits. To do that he must have the proper 
school library. Naturally, the first question is how to 
secure such a library. The ideal way is for the school 
authorities to provide the money — all of it or a part of it 
— as in many sections they do. When they do not, sev- 
eral plans have been tried. 

I. Organizing free traveling libraries for country 
schools. In many States the plan has been well worked 
out. In some cases the whole State is the unit, in others 
the county. Perhaps the latter method is preferable. On 
the whole, it is a very satisfactory plan, especially in its 
provision for a constant rotation of books from year to 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 139 

year, or oftener ; but it should not replace the permanent, 
stationary library, owned by the individual school ; it 
should rather supplement that. 

2. Asking patrons to contribute books for a perma- 
nent library or to lend books for a school term. This 
plan has never worked well — not because patrons are un- 
willing to contribute but because the volumes they donate 
are usually almost worthless to children. It is pretty 
hard to persuade a child that any book his parents enjoy 
reading is worth his reading — and it often is not! Aside 
from the most important question of the subject-matter 
and treatment, the book enjoyed by most adults is not 
mechanically suitable for most children; it is not illus- 
trated well, not printed well, is not covered properly — in 
short, makes no visual appeal to the child. 

3. Asking patrons to contribute money. The first 
drawback to this plan is that teachers feel a natural re- 
pugnance to begging money. This could be overcome, 
no doubt, or it could be obviated somewhat, by having 
each child do the canvassing in his own family. But in 
general so little money is obtained in this way that the 
results do not justify the humiliation and the labor in- 
volved. It may serve to eke out some other method, but 
cannot be relied upon as the only, or the chief method. 
Of course, if the community is fortunate enough to have 
in its midst a well-to-do, benevolent citizen, who is will- 



140 KNGLlSn IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

ing" to i^ivo to the school, he shonUl ho ahowcd and on- 
conrai^wl lo coiurihiuc as much as he w'\\\. 

4. Giviui;' entortainnieiits. These are of various 
kinds : hox suppers, pie sociahles. plays, literary pro- 
lirams. etc. This is one of the most popular anU success- 
ful modes of raising money for books, in that it furnishes 
plenty of good fnn and usually nets large financial re- 
turns. The objections to the box supper, or similar func- 
tion, are that die fun is likely to be too rough and boister- 
ous and that it sometimes, though rarely, stirs up ill-feel- 
ings or precipitates a quarrel where a grudge has already 
existed. The last two methods of raising money are un- 
objectionable, provided the nature of the performance is 
commendable. Often the play or the recitations, dialogs, 
etc.. on the progTam are cheap and trashy. It is vain to 
attempt to train children in the appreciation of good 
literature when the means employed to raise mone}- for 
the literature present false models for appreciation. A 
good principle to adopt is : always choose some fonn of 
entertainment tlie preparation for which will incidentally 
gi\e the children instruction and wholesome entertain- 
ment. In this way the performance will earn money and 
furnish a motive for tlie children to study good literature. 
I suggest later t^see page 2y^) some dialogs and plays 
that are bright, pleasing and amusing, and at the same 
time refined and artistic. The declamations should be 
chosen bv the same standards bv which srood literature 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 141 

is selected for class study, except that they should be so 
simple that most of the value of the selection can he 
easily appreciated by an audience as it is being read. 

Whatever plan you adopt, add some books to your 
library each winter. If you have none, get some; if you 
have some, get more. When the local school authorities 
discern that you anrl your pupils are in earnest, and when 
they observe the beneficial effects of a library upon tlie 
school, they will render all the moral and financial sup- 
port they can. 

What Is a Proper Library? 

I have said that if we are to train in proper reading 
habits, we must have the proper rural school library. 
After you have the money, how expend it? What is the 
proper rural school library? 

I, A large library. We have been entirely too modest 
in our demands. A one-room rural school library should 
have not fewer than one hundred books, and five hundred 
is not a book too many. Twenty-five books is much bet- 
ter than none, of course; and we have done well to con- 
tent ourselves with meager beginnings. But now that 
we have made a start, let us not rest until we have in- 
stalled in every country schoolhouse a good-sized library. 
It costs money, for all that books are so inexpensive 
nowadays; but we simply must get the money. 



142 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

2. A library for all the grades. j\Iany rural teachers 
ignore the little folks in selecting books for the library 
as well as in other matters. The reading habit should be 
started early, before the children have become too much 
absorbed in affairs external to the school and have formed 
other habits inimical to the reading habit. Of course, 
more money should be apportioned to the upper grades, 
because upper-grade books cost more per volume and 
the children in those grades should read more; but the 
younger pupils should not be neglected. 

3. A well varied library. It should contain books of 
all types, on all suitable themes — collections of poetry, 
fairv stories, animal stories, nature stories, hero stories, 
adventure stories, history stories, biographies, light es- 
says, supplementary readers — boys' books, girls' books — 
something that will appeal to every possible variety of 
child. Some teachers squander the school's money by 
purchasing whole sets of standard authors or a costly 
encvclopedia, or even books on pedagog}^ In my posses- 
sion are a number of lists of books in country school 
libraries. Examination of these lists corroborates the 
statement made by students of this question; they show 
that far too much money has been expended for "mature" 
classics and far too little for real children's books. The 
school library should be for the children ; it should be as 
varied as the ages, dispositions, tastes, interests, and per- 
sonalities of the children themselves. 



THE SCHOOL LII'.RARY 143 

4. A library coiiii)c)sc(l lari^cly of lilcralurc. To 1)0 
sure, the "information" book slioukl be represented; there 
should be books on A[;-riculture and Nature Study that 
contain only information; there should be supplementary 
readers in Geoi^raphy, History, and the like ; supplemen- 
tary readers for the reading' classes; l)ooks dealing'" witli 
the various phases of rural life. But, as the rcadinsj;' habit 
most desirable for country people to accpiire is the habit of 
reading purely for pleasure rather than for information, 
the majority of the books in the rural school library should 
contain literature, which, as we have seen, exists to arouse 
pleasant emotions rather than to give information. Some 
books do both ; l)ut they are literature in so far as the 
chief appeal is to the emotions, and "reading matter" in 
so far as their chief appeal is to the intellect. "Informa- 
tion" books are valuable, but "literature" books are 
invaluable. We country teachers need to remember that 

.pleasure is profit; that 

"The days that make us happy, make us wise," 

as Mr. John Masefield says. Let me repeat : the most 
profitable reading is that which is done for pleasure, and 
the reading habit most worth forming is the habit of 
reading for the sheer fun of it. Let the country schocjl 
library, then, be made up largely of children's literary 
classics. 

5. A rural school library. A classic is a classic the 



144 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

world over; it belongs in the country school library as 
much as in the city school library. But there are certain 
books that make a particularly strong appeal to the coun- 
try child, and there are others that were written directly 
for him. Critics tell us that literature is universal in its 
appeal, which, of course, is true. But it needs no critic 
to discover that a certain bit of literature makes an espe- 
cial appeal to individuals of a certain nature, disposition, 
interests, outlook on life, and that therefore a certain 
type of literature will be most stimulating to country 
people. Those books that are most suitable for country 
children should find a place on the shelves of the rural 
school library. 

In addition to the books for the library proper, the 
school should have some of the best periodicals for young 
people. (See a brief list on page 274.) The subscrip- 
tions can be made for just the school months; but if the 
building can be kept open during the summer the papers 
come the year round. 

Hozi' to Select Books 

In this discussion it is implied that the selection of 
books for a rural school library is a difficult task. It is 
indeed — so difficult that perhaps the teacher should never 
attempt to make his own selection. !Most book companies 
have prepared lists of books suitable for the grades (with- 
out reference particularly to the country school) ; but. of 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 145 

course, they mention only the volumes they publish. Few 
satisfactory bibliographies of books for a rural school 
library have ever been compiled, though many states have 
prepared partial lists. Dozens of well classified biblio- 
graphies of children's books have been published by pub- 
lic libraries and by schools; though these do not specify 
what volumes are best for a country library, the careful 
teacher can pick out suitable books for the rural school. 
I have made out a list of books that should be in every 
country school library (see pages 279-86), and give 
addresses for excellent bibliographies of children's books. 
(See pages 268-9.) ^^t perhaps the surest and most sat- 
isfactory plan for the rural teacher to follow is to consult 
the district or the county superintendent or v^rite to the 
state superintendent for advice. So much depends upon 
the proper selection of books that the rural teacher had 
best put the problem upon those that have made a careful 
study of the whole subject. 

Hozv to Use the Library 

After the money has been secured and a well chosen 
library installed, the next problem is to make the library 
serviceable. Some teachers labor hard to earn the money 
and exercise judgment in selecting books, then either 
ignore the library or build such a wall of restrictions 
about it that nothing short of a positive hunger for read- 
ing will make the pupils climb over. A library, even a 



146 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

choice libran-, is simply a bit of apparatus, like a dic- 
tionar}-, or a black-board : it will not «ofr if self. And it is 
fo be used. The books should be taken care of, and the 
teacher should be zealous in seeing that they be not 
roughly handled. But this zeal can be carried so far that 
the pupils hesitate to use the libraiy- at all. The highest 
compliment any book can receive is to be -woni out with 
reading. 

Here is the proper place, perhaps, for a few sugges- 
tions concerning the use of the rural school library. 

1. Keep the books in a book-case, either purchased by 
the school or built by the older boys. Arrange the vol- 
umes by grades and by subject matter. Purchase a small 
blank-book, in which you list all the titles in your librar\- 
and in which you give one page to each pupil, writing his 
name at the top of the page. AMien a pupil takes a book 
home, he should be charged with it; when he returns it, 
he should be credited. 

2. The teacher and the older girls and boys should act 
as librarians, each sending a week at a time. The 
librarian should keep a strict accoimt of all books bor- 
rowed and returned. Once a month the teacher should 
make an inventor}-, to assure himself that all the volumes 
are in the libran,- or are properly charged. 

3. Ask the older girls to pro^4de needles, thread, and 
paste and to keep the books in as good condition as pos- 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 147 

sible. rin general, let the children do much of the work. 
It makes them feel responsible, gratifies their delight in 
ownership, and develops the co-operative spirit.; 

4. Allow any pupil to take a book from the book-case 
any time he has leisure during the day. He should not 
be required to ask permission; but he should be required 

to replace the book. Of course, some pupils will need 
to be repressed if they develop a tendency to read so 
much that they seriously neglect their studies; but even.- 
child in school has some leisure time, which he should 
be allowed to use in reading. 

5. Just before dismissal for the day, set aside five 
minutes during which the children may borrow books to 
take home. It is best not to wait until after school is dis- 
missed, lest the child be so anxious to join a group of 

boys and girls going in his direction that he will not stop 
for a book. 

6. Allow a child to keep a book out for a week if he 
wants it that long. Encourage him to pass the book 
round at home so that every member of the family may 
read it. The more persons, young and old, that a 
book can reach, the greater sen,-ice is it rendering the 
community. 

7. The same regulations should apply to the periodi- 
cals. A small table should be provided, and the magazines 



148 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

spread out. Allow and encourage the children to pass to 
the table and to read there or to carry the magazines 
back to their seats. Permit the periodicals to be taken 
home under the same conditions as books, except that a 
current number is to be kept only one night or over Sat- 
urday and Sunday. Preserve the back numbers of the 
magazines and, have the girls sew them together. In a 
few years the school will possess a library of young folks' 
magazines — for the value of such periodicals does not 
depend upon the current news as much as upon the 
articles and stories. 

8. If you live in the vicinity of the school you teach, 
keep the building open once a week during the summer 
for the purpose of keeping the books and magazines in 
circulation. If you cannot do this, persuade the authori- 
ties to appoint some trustworthy young person for this 
work. The reading habit formed during the winter 
months should not be entirely broken during the summer 
vacation. 

Hozv to Persuade Children to Form Reading Habits 

But perhaps the task that requires most skill and 
diplomacy is the task of persuading the pupils to use the 
books. Some children need no persuasion; all that they 
require is access to the library. But many children must 
be encouraged, urged, cajoled, enticed; they don't "take 
to" books. What can the teacher do to attract the bovs 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 149 

and girls of this type to the Hbrary and to train them in 
the formation of the reading habit? 

1. Secure attractive books — books with pretty covers, 
with large print and clear white paper, with wide mar- 
gins, with artistic pictures. Fortunately most publishers 
nowadays take real pride in issuing children's books that 
are both attractive and inexpensive — it may be because 
they realize that most children ask, with Alice in Won- 
derland : "What is the use of a book without pictures 
or conversation?" A volume should delight the eye and 
appeal to the sense of beauty. Besides, a picture is very 
helpful to a youthful reader; it assists him in imaging 
the scenes and events of the story. 

2. Read an interesting passage or a lively story from 
a book in the library, letting the children know what the 
volume is. If you choose the right kind of book and 
read well, you may awaken some child's desire to read 
a book that contains such attractive stories. Some teach- 
ers read or tell only a part of an exciting story, stopping 
short at a climax and telling the children they may read 
the remainder for themselves. Some city teachers read 
a whole book in installments; they state that if they do 
this reading the first thing in the morning, it brings the 
children to school promptly. Perhaps the country teacher 
cannot spare the time for this, but it might be tried. And 
there need be no hesitation lest a book that suits the 



ISO ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

younger pupils will not suit the older ones. The teacher 
can choose a book that is suitable for about the fourth 
grade, and most of the children below and above that 
grade will listen attentively. If any child does not. let 
him go on with what does interest him — some other book 
or his studies. 

3. Make close correlation between the library books 
and the school studies. In History, refer to books or 
stories that will illustrate the lesson and deepen the 
impression, or read a little from a great oration or a his- 
torical peom. In Geography, make use of whatever travel 
books the library possesses. In Agriculture or Nature 
Study, point the pupils to certain volumes that deal with 
a particular theme in which they are interested. I am not 
speaking of Supplementary Readers, though of course 
they should be in the library and should be frequently 
used by the class; I refer to single volumes which can be 
taken home and read just for the fun of reading — not 
"information" books necessarily: rather "literature" 
books, which yield pleasure first, profit second, which are 
read not only to illustrate a lesson, but also because it has 
been suggested by the lesson. Especially close connec- 
tion can be secured between the reading or literature les- 
son and the library books. If your class studies a cer- 
tain incident from a longer stor\'. or a part of a poem, 
or any fraction of a literary unit, you can often interest 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 151 

a child sufficiently to induce him to take home the hbrary 
book containing the whole story or poem. A selection in 
the literature lesson may be suggestive of another in a 
library book, or it may serve to introduce- the children 
to other selections of the same writer. The skilful teacher 
thinks of numerous ways of connecting the regular work 
of school with the books in the library; and this is one of 
the best means of starting the children in the reading 
habit. 

4. Encourage the older children to help the younger 
one select books. A word from a pupil in praise of a 
book is often worth a panegyric from the teacher. It is 
a good plan to set apart a few minutes once a week or 
oftener for the children to say what books they have been 
reading, to state what they are about, and how and why 
they like them. Encourage frankness in this; it is never 
well to force children into an attitude of false praise. If 
they do not care for a book, the teacher may diplomatically 
indicate what values they have overlooked ; but it is poor 
policy for him to defend it. See to it that the library 
contains no worthless volume, then let the children range 
over it almost at will. Some teachers adopt the practice 
of looking through the book account of the pupils once a 
month; and if they observe that a certain pupil is reading 
one type of book exclusively, they suggest some related 
type. That is an excellent plan, if the teacher uses 



152 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

diplomacy in his suggestions. It enables the teacher to 
discover which pupils are not reading enough, so that he 
may give them special attention. But the more com- 
pletely the teacher can assume the attitude of letting the 
library books earn their own popularity, the better. An 
attractive book is kept in circulation nearly all the time, 
because the children advertise it, while a dull book gathers 
dust on the library shelves, let the teacher praise it how 
he wnll. 

5. The teacher should seize every opportunity to "talk 
books*' informally with individual pupils — at recess, in 
class, before and after school, whenever a convenient 
moment presents itself. Some teachers require the upper 
grade children to write reports on the books they read. 
I doubt the wisdom of that practice. A composition 
may occasionally be based on some phase of a book, or 
the story may be retold as an exercise in oral com- 
position — that is about all the "accounting" for the 
books read the child should be asked to make. ^luch 
better than the written review or report is the informal 
conversation, in which the teacher, by pointed questions, 
directs the child to look for the essentials : the theme of 
the book, the elements of interest, the basal characteris- 
tics that make it like some books and unlike others, the 
most exciting, humorous, or pathetic passages and chap- 
ters — in general, the most obvious and most important 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 153 

qualities. The teacher should strive to make his pupils 
intelligent readers, but should not hold them so strictly 
to account that they will not read with freedom and spon- 
taneous pleasure. We teachers have a theory that a per- 
son should be able definitely to state why he likes a 
book, in order that he may formulate canons of taste. 
That is a worthy ideal ; but let us not forget that children 
are not so analytical as we adults are. If they enjoy a 
book and can present even vague notions of the reasons 
for their liking, that is sufficient. Nothing should be 
allowed to interfere with the impression that reading a 
book is fun — good fun, with no examination waiting at 
the end to see how much we remember and how much 
information we have acquired. The formation of the 
reading habit — that is the one ideal for the teacher to 
keep in mind. 

6. Have an intimate understanding of the nature of 
each pupil, and select for him those books that will appeal 
to his nature. A teacher often puts a stumbling block 
in the path he is urging his pupils to follow, by insisting 
that they read a certain book, willy-nilly. A certain 
classic may make almost a universal appeal and 3'et not 
inspire even a passing interest in a particular child.''' If 
it does not, after you have made a tactful attempt to start 

* A teacher once told me that she had supposed every boy 
in the universe would enjoy "Robinson Crusoe," but that one 
of her boys the preceding winter had brought the book back to 
the library, "disguste'd with Crusoe's cowardice." 



154 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the captious reader on the right track, do not call him a 
numskull and force him to struggle through a volume 
he dislikes — heartily, by this time. Some books appeal 
to boys, some to girls; some to the rough, robust, out- 
of-door type of .child, others to the quiet, subdued type — 
and we make a serious mistake when we compel a child 
to read any book, however admirable we or others may 
regard it. Of course, we can, by the power vested in us, 
require a pupil to read a certain book; but that almost 
inevitably gives a check to the formation of the reading 
habit, since the obtaining of pleasure is the only genuine 
and permanent motive for reading. And let us be espe- 
cially careful not to force, or even persuade, a child to 
start a book that is beyond his years. In the selecting 
of books for children, the general law of development 
holds good: Furnish the child with what his healthy, 
normal appetite demands, at the same time guarding him 
against vicious influences and tendencies, and Nature 
herself will see that he grows into maturity. Every 
teacher of English knows dozens of young men and 
women who never succeed in enjoying certain great lit- 
erature because a teacher has forced them into it too 
soon; and most of us know many others who fail to get 
the most out of certain other literature because they are 
introduced to it too late. Perhaps the greatest mistake 
into which an earnest, well-meaning teacher can fall is 
that of taking up a position three or four years in advance 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 155 

of his pupils and admonishing them to be men and women, 
before they have really ceased to be boys and girls. A 
teacher who demands of his pupils that they toil through 
"The Vicar of Wakefield" or "Cranford" or "Adam 
Bede" or Addison's Essays commits a three-fold crime 
against the children : wastes time they might be spending 
in suitable reading, forces them into distasteful reading 
and thereby hinders the formation of the reading habit, 
and hermetically closes their hearts against specimens of 
literature which would in later years be attractive and 
inspiring. There is plenty of literature for every period 
of life; if this literature is read in its natural order, it 
offers an easy path to reading habits; but if it is taken up 
out of its natural order, the entire system becomes disor- 
ganized and discontinuous. Nourish a child upon the 
proper childish literature, and when he is old he will 
relish mature literature. 

7. All this implies what is perhaps the best means of 
encouraging children to read and of establishing the read- 
ing habit: the teacher must be himself a lover of books. 
Rarely does a teacher uninterested in reading succeed in 
causing his pupils to love books; rarely does a teacher 
interested in reading, fail. We all have felt the force of 
example ; and perhaps in nothing else is example so forci- 
ble as in reading and in love for books. The teacher 
should know books for more than one reason. He needs 
to know them for his own sake, to develop his person- 



156 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

alitv, and to give him hours of freedom and joy. Our 
profession, full though it is of the joy of service, is all 
too likely to be dull and monotonous — 

"Toniorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day." 

Dealing" as they do, with immature minds and unformed 
characters and focusing their attention upon studies that, 
through repetition, become void of interest, country- 
teachers need often to be lifted up by the sublime truths 
of literature, to converse in books with characters of 
lofty intelligence and serene souls. All we teachers need 
this for ourselves and we need it for our pupils; for the 
inspiration, the culture, the wisdom we obtain will filter 
down into the most commonplace duty and service of the 
school — or, rather, lift the entire range of service to a 
higher plane, ^^'e need this in order to make ourselves 
better teachers ; for, as Robert Lloyd phrases it, 

"Little w'ay his learning reaches. 
Who reads no more than what he teaches,'' 

But we should not spend all our time reading mature 
literature; we should read and re-read children's litera- 
ture — and find keen pleasure in it. It is to be hoped 
that we have, when children, read and loved the great 
children's classics, for one of the finest joys of life is that 
experienced bv the man or woman as he re-reads some 
childhood favorite. The man who has lost his taste for 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 157 

"Gullivers 1 ravels," "Robinson Crusoe," "Tom Saw- 
yer," "Treasure Island," the "Arabian Nights," and such 
tales, that man, like him who has forgotten how to play, 
is not the man to teach children. Do you remember 
Cov/per's lines? 

" 'Twere well with most, if books that could engage 
Our childhood, pleased us at a riper age." 

The more of the tastes and ideals of childhood we carry 
over into maturity and develop there, the better are we 
prepared to guide and instruct children. The teacher 
should knozu every book in the rural school library better 
than does any child in school, and should love them not 
less. 

Conclusion 

Let us recapitulate. Reading good books will do much 
to make the country man and woman more contented. 
Reading is a habit. The habit should be formed in youth. 
The best place to form this habit is in the country school. 
The country school library should consist of many well 
selected books; these books should be easily accessible; 
and the teacher should, by all possible methods, encourage 
the children to read them. The person who has formed 
the reading habit has discovered one of the secrets of a 
happy life. Happy the teacher who can cultivate such 
habits in his pupils ; fortunate the child who comes under 
the influence of such a teacher. 



156 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

alitv, and to give him hours of freedom and joy. Our 
profession, full though it is of the joy of service, is all 
too likely to be dull and monotonous — 

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day." 

Dealing" as. they do. with immature minds and unformed 
characters and focusing their attention upon studies that, 
through repetition, become void of interest, country 
teachers need often to be lifted 1^:1 by the sublime truths 
of literature, to converse in books with characters of 
lofty intelligence and serene souls. All we teachers need 
this for ourselves and we need it for our pupils; for the 
inspiration, the culture, the wisdom we obtain will filter 
down into the most commonplace duty and service of the 
school — or, rather, lift the entire range of service to a 
higher plane, ^^'e need this in order to make ourselves 
better teachers; for, as Robert Lloyd phrases it, 

"Little way his learning reaches. 
Who reads no more than what he teaches," 

But we should not spend all our time reading mature 
literature ; we should read and re-read children's litera- 
ture — and find keen pleasure in it. It is to be hoped 
that we have, when children, read and loved the great 
children's classics, for one of the finest joys of life is that 
experienced bv the man or woman as he re-reads some 
childhood favorite. The man who has lost his taste for 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 157 

"Gullivei's 1 ravels," "Robinson Crusoe," "Tom Saw- 
yer," "Treasure Island," the "Arabian Nights," and such 
tales, that man, like him who has forgotten how to play, 
is not the man to teach children. Do you remember 
Cowper's lines? 

" 'Twere well with most, if books that could engage 
Our childhood, pleased us at a riper age." 

The more of the tastes and ideals of childhood we carry 
over into maturity and develop there, the better are we 
prepared to guide and instruct children. The teacher 
should know every hook in the rural school library better 
than does any child in school, and should love them not 
less. 

Conclusion 

Let us recapitulate. Reading good books will do much 
to make the country man and woman more contented. 
Reading is a habit. The habit should be formed in youth. 
The best place to form this habit is in the country school. 
The country school library should consist of many well 
selected books; these books should be easily accessible; 
and the teacher should, by all possible methods, encourage 
the children to read them. The person who has formed 
the reading habit has discovered one of the secrets of a 
happy life. Happy the teacher who can cultivate such 
habits in his pupils; fortunate the child who comes under 
the influence of such a teacher. 



loO KNC.l.lSU IX rUK COUKTRV SCHOOL 

rtMvdinji" is to siipplv only the best ohiUlrou's litovaturo and 
then to let the children read it for pleasure. It it is genuine 
children's literature, it will be more interestinsi\ more enjoy- 
able, than any cheap, easy tiction in existence. 



CIIAI'TI.!' inVK 

si'i':LLixr; 

No ])()()]< <]c-d\\]]i^ vvilli I'Jij'IiJi ill \]\(: Connlry Sriiool 
would be coiDjjlele witliout a 'lisciissiou of Spcllinj^. It. 
is one of the group of studies which we call by the gen- 
eral name of "Engb'sh" studies. Tt is vitally connected 
with Composition work and with Primary Keading. 

Spelling a Pavorile Subject in Country Schools 

But while the subject is important in any school, it 
seems especially imjjortant in the country school, because 
we have always devoted so much time to it. Country 
teachers give a great deal jnore time and attention to 
Sjjclling Iha)] city teachers do. In some of om- rural 
schools we have from three to six classes in Sj>elling; 
perhaps some teachers use an hour a day in the Spelling 
classes. The subject is a favorite one with country 
teachers and country pupils. Why? 

The Country Teacher's Practicalness 

Perhaps the answer is not to be found chiefly in the 
country teacher's intense practicalness. I realize that I 
have tried to account for several characteristics of his 
teaching by this characteristic of his personality; but 

161 



162 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

undoubtedly it is one of the most noticeable points of 
divergence between the rural and the city teacher. Any 
subject that appeals to the former as useful, as utilizable, 
as immediately and directly serviceable, he holds most 
important; and since Spelling is useful, he gives it a chief 
place in his daily program. Now, practicalness is a desir- 
able attribute, in a school teacher or any person whatso- 
ever. But there are two kinds of practicalness. The 
first is that which demands immediate returns from an 
investment of time, money, effort, which exacts a strict 
account from every penny and every second, which 
focuses its eyes and concentrates its attention on the 
direct, tangible result; the second is that which is willing 
to invest time, money, effort for returns far in the future, 
which does not expect an exact equivalent for every 
penny and every second, which focuses its eyes and con- 
centrates its attention on the distant, often incalculable, 
results. The first type of practicalness manifests itself 
in a school teacher that insists on information; the sec- 
ond in the teacher who tries to build character. The 
first demands immediate, concrete results : ability to spell, 
to cipher, to know the facts of History and Geography; 
the second desires to inculcate ideals of taste, culture, 
character. Surely, this latter may be called practicalness. 
It aims at the largest returns and it keeps its eye on the 
most important, the most permanently useful. 

In general, country teachers are short-sighted in their 



SPELLING 163 

practicality. They are continually stopping to figure up 
what they have done so far, always trying to weigh or 
measure results. If anything goes out of sight, they 
think it has been wasted. If their pupils cannot reel off 
a certain number of historical facts, they think they have 
failed to teach. They test everything by the visible signs : 
if a child has memorized a poem, he has learned some- 
thing; if he has felt the emotion but has not memorized 
the words, he has carried away nothing from the poem. 
They are not content to wait for results; if a pupil is not 
able to produce evident proofs of study, they think both 
themselves and the child have lost time and effort. 

This attitude is largely responsible, I believe, for the 
over-emphasis placed upon Spelling in rural schools. 
Here is a study where we can see results. We assign a 
child twenty words to learn; if he learns them all, he can 
be graded one hundred; if he learns eighteen, he is graded 
ninety. It is so definite, so satisfactory, so visible. 
Assign a literature lesson — and how are you to estimate 
the results? It cannot be done; and if it is attempted, 
the literary value is lost. We call spelling practical 
because we can measure the returns ; and though the 
selection of literature may be measureless in its results, 
we exalt spelling to a higher rank than literature. Un- 
doubtedly too much time is devoted to Spelling in coun- 
try schools. 



104 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Objections to Our Mctliods of Teaching Spcl}i)ig 

]\Ioreover. the country child, despite the greater num- 
ber of hours he spends at his Spelhng work, is not a 
better speher than the city child — not so good, some 
investigators claim. If. then, the subject is given undue 
importance and then, in spite of the emphasis placed 
upon it, is not taught any better, surely we had best 
examine our course of study and our methods of teach- 
ing to see if we cannot discover what is wrong. Coun- 
try teachers, who complain that they do not have sufficient 
time, had best see if thev cannot save time both by depos- 
ing spelling from its position as one of the most impor- 
tant subjects and by preventing any waste in methods of 
teaching, ^\'hat is wrong? I present several objections 
to our way of teaching Spelling. 

I. Spelling is treated as a separate branch. This has 
two evil results, i. It takes more time than it should. 
2. The pupils get the impression that when the spelling 
lesson has been learned and recited, they are through with 
spelling for the day. The spelling-book has been thrown 
out of the window in many schools, and spelling is taught 
without a text at all. I quote from a recent article in the 
Journal of Education. "Text-books, that is, spelling- 
books, are not necessary for teaching spelling: one bet- 
ter be without text-books than have them and be obliged 
to use them." I do not believe that: I quote it only to 



SPELLING 165 

show a certain modern tendency. It would not do for 
country schools; but it suggests that we have been rely- 
ing too much on the spelling-book. A good text in spell- 
ing is very useful. It saves the teacher's time and energy; 
It provides a better list of words than any inexperienced 
teacher could possibly compile ; it increases the pupils' 
vocabulary; it is convenient for assigning and studying 
lessons. I heartily believe in the spelling-book for coun- 
try schools; but the most perfect book in the orthographi- 
cal universe cannot make good spellers — unless the 
teacher uses the book intelligently, and unless he teaches 
spelling in connection with all the other school subjects — 
reading, arithmetic, history, etc. 

2. Spelling is taught too much by the oral method. 
As a matter of fact, one rarely needs to spell (^ outside of 
the school) except when he writes; and if schooling is a 
preparation for life — it is that, whatever else it may be — 
surely, written spelling in the school is more important 
than oral spelling. "But doesn't oral spelling prepare 
just as well for writing as written spelling does ?" That 
depends. Experiments have shown that some people 
learn best from what they see, while others learn best 
from what they hear. Moreover, the act of writing the 
word has an educative value; one might almost say that 
the words are engraved on the brain when they are being 
written on paper. Besides, in a written lesson each pupil 



166 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOI 

spells all the words, whereas in an oral lesson he spells 
only a small proportion. And again, the record is more 
easily kept when it is written. The teacher can examine 
the pupils' papers and make a list of the words misspelled, 
then can drill on these words. 

3. Spelling is often taught in country schools without 
any elTort to show the meaning and use of the words. 
Kow. it stands to reason that ability to spell without the 
power to use the w^ord is idle — more useless than to a 

farmer would be the knowledge of how a plow is manu- 
factured without the ability to plow a field. The words 
spelled, then, should be used in sentences, intelligent sen- 
tences. If. for example, you are presenting the word 
"nimble." do not approve a sentence like: ''The boy is 
nimble" — that kind of sentence does not really illustrate 
the word. Let the sentence sliow the meaning : "John 
was nimble yesterday when he dodged three boys." And, 
let us not take too much for granted in this matter. The 
mere word often sinks out of the memory unless buoyed 
up by an idea. 

4. The necessity for drill is not clearly enough seen by 
country school teachers. As we know, hundreds of our 
commonest words are not spelled according to the sound. 
These words must be learned outright by insistent drill. 
They must be spelled and used over and over until the 
spelling is mechanically correct. Instead of teaching 



SPELLING 167 

words to which the child can attach no real meaning, wc 



fc- 



should concentrate on the usable, every-day words. 

5. The few valuable rules for spelling are ignored iw 
many rural schools. In fact, many teachers do not know 
that such rules exist. Of course, they should be taught 
only to the more advanced scholars ; but they are too use- 
ful to be shoved entirely out of the way. 

6. The "dictionary" habit is not formed in most coun- 
try schools. If your school does not have a large, modern 
dictionary, get one; and then have it used. It requires 
a good deal of training to make free use of the diction- 
ary. Many of our pupils do not "make a path to the 
dictionary," because they do not know how to find the 
information they want when they get there. When your 
pupils chance upon a new word, encourage them, require 
them, to find the meaning in the dictionary — but first 
show them how to look. To this end you must teach the 
diacritical marks and the sounds of the letters, as well as 
syllabification. Of course, much of this is especially for 
the upper grades. 

7. Children in country schools are not taught how to 
study spelling. They are not trained to observe the word 
closely, to compare it with others, to write out the more 
difficult words, to notice their own blunders in orthogra- 
phy, to connect the word with a familiar idea, to use it in 



168 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

conversation and writing". Time is thus lost, and, worse 
still, the child's mental powers are not fully developed. 

8. Spelling is considered too important a subject in 
country schools. It ranks with history and geography 
and hygiene and the other "content" branches — that is, 
branches that contain mental food. Spelling does not give 
the mind much to feed upon. One may be a first-rate 
formal speller and yet be a crass ignoramus — witness 
Teems Philipps in "The Hoosier School-Master." And 
it is quite possible for one to be a poor speller and still 
be a wise, learned person — as was Robert Louis Steven- 
son. To be sure, the ability to spell correctly is one index 
of an education and cultivation — a mark artificial but 
necessary : there is no gainsaying that. But it is con- 
ventional, extrinsic, incidental, not real knowledge or cul- 
ture — any more than the dinner bell which calls farmers 
from the field is the dinner. Spelling correctly is like lift- 
ing one's hat to ladies : one is the sign of education, the 
other of politeness; but they are only indicative of knowl- 
edge and culture. 

9. Too much time is devoted to spelling in country 
schools because it is a favorite subject and considered 
easy to teach. The lesson is concrete. It presents to the 
pupil a definite task to be done ; it appeals to the teacher 
as a bit of work easily assigned, easily graded, easily dis- 
posed of in recitation. To both pupil and teacher it has 



SPELLING 169 

a special attractiveness because spelling is a matter of 
correctness or incorrectness, not of reasoning or judg- 
ment, because the oral recitation is a sort of game, and 
because it can be learned. But, oh, the pathos of it! To 
think that one of the emptiest of all school subjects should 
be the favorite because it can be learned. Teacher, those 
boys and girls would naturally be a hundred fold more 
eager to learn something real, something that would make 
them think and feel and grow, if only we had the power 
to teach. When will we discover that the learning of 
detached, isolated facts is not education, that verbal mem- 
ory is not education? When will we learn that nature 
study, geography, hygiene, history, literature are the real 
developers of mentality and spirituality? When will 
we learn that our boys and girls will not increase 
in mental avoirdupois by feeding upon the mere hushes of 
knowledge ? 

lo. The old-fashioned conception of spelling as a sub- 
ject that develops the intellect still prevails in many coun- 
try schools. The erroneous belief that if a person trains 
himself in spelling, he is training his whole mental power, 
training his observation, his memory, his judgment, as a 
whole — this belief is chargeable, in part, with the over- 
emphasis placed upon spelling. This is not the place for 
a discussion of that question. Surely it has been proved 
by experiment and experience that training in spelling 



170 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

does not mean training the po\Yers of the mind : it means 
simply training- in spelling and in those allied facts and 
subjects — nothing more. 

How to Teach Spelling 

And now, after presenting these indictments against 
the teaching of spelling in country schools, let me make 
some definite suggestions, in order to amplify and empha- 
size what has been already said. 

1. Teach spelling in connection with all the school 
subjects. 

2. Especially teach spelling in connection with com- 
position work. \Mien a word is used, that is the psycho- 
logical moment to teach the spelling of the word. In a 
sense, no one is interested in a word until he has to use 
it. It does not belong to him. He feels no sense of 
proprietorship. 

3. Be sure always that the words spelled are under- 
stood. It is not necessary to define them formally; but 
their meaning should always be clear. In the lower 
grades this usually means leading the pupil to infer the 
import of the word; occasionally it means telling him 
outright. In the upper grades the dictionan.- habit should 
be formed. But even here \\e must encourage \Yhat may 
be called the "context" habit — by which is meant the 
habit of inferring: the meanins: of the word bv examina- 



SPELLING 171 

tioii of- the sentence in which the word is imbedded. This 
is not guessing; it is reasoning. And let us rcmeml^er, 
too, that 'the hterary significance of a word is often quite 
distinct from the dictionary meaning. This examination 
of words for their meaning should often be a part of the 
lesson assignment. 

4. Drill hard on the important words. The good 
speller is not he who can spell the difficult words, those 
sesquipedalian monstrosities which, in the last pages of 
the old-time spelling-book "upheave their vastness," as 
Milton says. The good speller is he who can distinguish 
between "to" and "two," "there" and "their"; that can 
spell "silo" and "mulch" and "grammar." Concentrate 
on the necessary words. Make out occasional lists of 
common words often misspelled. 

5. Have plenty of written spelling. In the lower 
grades oral spelling is more desirable in many ways; but 
advanced pupils should usually write their lessons. 
Recently Dr. Maria Montessori, the great Italian teacher, 
has re-discovered how rapidly and efficiently the muscles 
of children can educate their minds. Her pupils learn to 
read by writing; see if yours cannot learn at least to spell 
by writing. Occasionally have your children write sen- 
tences using the words to be spelled. 

6. See to it that your pupils in the upper grades learn 
the diacritical marks, phonics, spelling rules, syllabifica- 



172 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

tion. etc. Just how this should be done is a problem for 
each teacher. It should not he forced ; it should grow out 
of the desire of the pupil to gain more knowledge. But 
it should be thoroughly done. 

7. Help your children study. In assigning a lesson 
point out the hard words and show wherein the ditftculty 
lies. This is the natural occasion to discuss the meaning 
of new words and to compare them with others. Limit 
the time allowed for studying the lesson, so that the 
pupils will not get the habit of scattering their attention. 
Recent experiments in the Horace INIann school in New 
York have proven that children who have been taught 
how to study spelling become more proficient than those 
left to themselves, and moreover, they prepare their les- 
sons more rapidly. 

S. After all this it may seem paradoxical to offer my 
eighth suggestion : Do not take up so much time with 
spelling lessons. Apparently I have insisted that you do 
more work than you have been doing; now I ask you not 
to use so much time. But if the previous suggestions are 
examined you will discover that I am consistent. First, 
much of the work will be done incidentally, in connec- 
tion with other lessons ; it does not subtract any time from 
the spelling period. Second, your pupils will do more on 
their own initiative. This means that tliey will learn to 
spell with more auto-interest and consequently in less 



SPELLING 173 

time. Third, though the following ot my suggestions 
does necessitate more work for the teacher, it is work 
that can be performed outside of school hours. One of 
the most difficult problems in the country school is the 
problem of time. But it is a problem of time in the school- 
room. When school is over for the day, the average 
country teacher does not work nearly as long as does the 
city teacher in preparing his lessons for the next day — 
that is, in preparing work for the pupils. In the even- 
ing you can spend time profitably correcting spelling lists, 
making out new lists, marking the spelling mistakes in 
written work handed in, preparing your spelling assign- 
ments for the next day, planning methods of making 
spelling as attractive and useful as possible. Save time 
for yourself and your pupils in the school-room by work- 
ing at home. 

Conclusion 

Accepting these suggestions does not imply the aban- 
donment of the Spelling-book. But it does imply that 
the Spelling-book is to be subordinated. Spelling should 
not stand as a separate study; it is of value only in its 
relationship to other branches. It should lead to the dic- 
tionary habit, since every person needs often to consult a 
dictionary. It is of value in learning to read, since often 
we can, by spelling a word, discover what the word is. It 
is of some value In learning to talk, since the discovery 



174 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of new words, by the spelling' proeess. is an important 
way of enlarging- our voeabulary. It is of great value in 
writing, since the question of how to spell a word is con- 
stantly coming up whenever we write. Spelling is not to 
bo ignored by any means : but it does not exist by and for 
itself, as Arithmetic does, or GeogTaphy. or History, or 
Literature, or Hygiene, or Agriculture. H" it docs not 
lead somewhere, if it does not attach itself to some others 
of the school activities and the school arts, it is almost 
worthless. H* a graduate in the niral school is able to 
spell e\ cry word in the Spelling-hook and has not learned 
how to consult a dictionary, has not acquired a curiosity 
aK'tut words, and, alx^ve all. has not learned to spell cor- 
rectly in his writing, the time spent in mastering the 
Spelling-book is time practically wasted. 

The Oueky Box 

What is JVordStudy, and hoic docs it differ from Spelling f 

"^^*ord-Study" is quite different from Spelling, though 
the two are usually taken up together in the elementary- 
school. It is concerned with the history and deri\ation of 
words, their connection with other words of the same class 
or family, with prefixes, suffixes, etc. Spelling is almost 
eiuirely a formal subject, but word-study often implies in- 
vestigation and thinking. It is a very large subject and 
quite difficult, since it requires not a little knowledge of 
other languages, especially Latin. Greek. French, and Anglo- 
Saxon. However, a gv»od deal of work along this line can 
be done in the country school. L'sually it is interesting to 



SPF.TJJNG 175 

children and throws nuich hght on SpclHug and other 1mi- 
gHsh subjects. To ilhistrate: It is interesting to a child to 
know that "daisy" means "day's eye" ; when one knows that, 
he sees some signilicance in the name. (Many (lowers and 
phmts, by the way, have very nnexj)ectcd derivations, some 
of them quite pretty and quaint.) A child who has difficulty 
in remembering what a "([uart" is — he will have no difficulty, 
of course, if he is taught in the proper way — will get new 
light on the word when he learns that the word is connected 
with the word "quarter" ; that is, a quart is a quarter of a 
gallon. Some little knowledge of the past is gained when 
a child learns that "lantern" used sometimes to be spelled 
"lanthorn" because its sides were made of horn scraped thin 
and transparent. Hundreds of words that were once mean- 
ingless and dead become endowed with life when they are 
examined in the light of their origin and history. "In a 
language like ours," says Coleridge, in "Aids to Reflection," 
"so many words of which are derived from other languages, 
there are few modes of instruction more useful or more 
amusing than that of accustoming young people to seek for 
the etymology, or primary meaning, of the words they use. 
There are cases in which more knowledge of more value may 
be conveyed by the history of a word than by the history of 
a campaign." 

The country teacher will do well, then, to train his pupils 
in the habit of searching out the origin and biography of 
words. He should also teach the value of the common 
suffixes and prefixes, and the general laws by which words 
are regulated. And, since the country teacher cannot be a 
linguist. I have suggested a few books (See page 275) in 
which much information and entertainment can be found. 



CHAPTER SIX 

GRAMMAR 

Perhaps no change in our ideas about the teaching of 
English in rural schools is more significant than that tak- 
ing place in so many sections of the United States in 
regard to formal grammar. In not many progressive 
states is the old-style grammar to be found as a text for 
common schools. In most states we now have a book or 
a series of books on Language, designed to guide teacher 
and pupil in speaking and wri'ting. Here and there, how- 
ever, are states or counties in which the old-fashioned 
grammar is still strongly intrenched; and all over the 
country are to be found teachers who apply the tradi- 
tional method to the new books. For he who wishes to 
emphasize the purely grammatical phases of the English 
language can make a grammar text out of any book, even 
out of "Paradise Lost" — thus giving a new and appro- 
priate meaning to the title. Let me,, then, in this chapter 
review the question of the teaching of formal grammar. 
That these are not original ideas is proved by the fact 
that the shift from formal grammar to language work has 
already taken place, and for reasons such as I here state. 

176 



GRAMMAR 177 

What Is Formal Grammar f 

But perhaps I had first better explain what "formal 
grammar" means. It means that part of language study 
which is concerned chiefly with definitions and classifi- 
cations of the parts of speech, with inflections and con- 
jugations, with parsing and diagramming and analyzing. 
"Formal grammar" is that which deals with the "form" 
of the language rather than the meaning, with the science 
of speech rather than the art of speaking. 

Arguments for Formal Grammar 

Believers in the teaching of formal grammar in com- 
mon schools base their belief upon three supposed values. 
Let me examine these and answer them as completely as 
the necessity for brevity will permit. 

I. The study of Grammar trains our boys and girls 
to speak and write more correctly, more forcibly, mere 
fluently. That surely would be a strong argument for 
formal grammar, if it could be maintained. But as a 
matter of fact, the study of grammar does not train much 
in speaking and writing. What the study of Grammar 
can do is : First, to enable us to distinguish one part of 
speech from another; second, to use the forms of the 
inflected parts of speech correctly, as their position in the 
sentence and their connection with other words demand; 
third, to recognize the grammatical relationship of the 



178 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

phrases and clauses in a sentence; fourth, to give us, in 
general, a standard for grammatical correctness within a 
sentence. Grammar deals only with correctness, and only 
with graiHDiatical correctness; it ignores the logical and 
rhetorical principles of language; it says little or nothing 
about force, expressiveness, choice of words, arrange- 
ment of sentences with reference to each other, unity, 
coherence, emphasis — in general, those fundamental 
qualities of language, spoken and written, (which are 
taken up later; see page 214). Even if Grammar dealt 
with the whole science of language, the study of Gram- 
mar would not tra'ui in speaking and writing. The only 
way of learning to speak and write well is by practice 
in speaking and writing under proper guidance, by read- 
ing good literature, and by imitating good models. It is 
possible for one to know formal Grammar thoroughly — 
to be able to parse, diagram, analyze, and perform all 
th^ other mental gymnastics demanded, and yet not be 
able to converse fluently and effectively or even correctly, 
and not be able to write a good business letter or an inter- 
esting social letter. And it is possible for a person to be 
utterly ignorant of the science of formal Grammar, and 
yet be able to speak and write with ease, force, and even 
correctness. The only way to learn to swim is to swim; 
the only way to learn to talk and write is to talk and 
write. 



GRAMMAR 179 

2. Study of the rules and principles of Grammar trains 
the mind. In other words, it is a disciplinary subject — 
a subject that gives the whole mind discipline or train- 
ing. It is not feasible here to discuss the theory that 
there are certain branches of learning which so exercise 
and develop the entire mind that a person can perform 
any work better — the theory which has been concentrated, 
so to speak, in this axiom : "A person can plow around a 
stump better if he knows Latin and Greek." The only 
way to test the validity of such a theory is to examine 
it by experiment, experience, and reason. Without enter- 
ing into the mass of arguments for and against the theory 
and detailing the experiments, let me here state that it 
seems to me that the theory of formal discipline is 
unsound. Mastery of formal Grammar does not make 
a person a better thinker except in those subjects in which 
the knowledge gained in the study of Grammar is needed ; 
it will not develop the power to acquire other knowledge 
except to that extent to which the person can "carry 
over" the knowledge gained in the study of Grammar 
and "carry over" those definite habits of study that are 
fundamental in all study. Even the memorizing of the 
rules of Grammar will not develop general memory, 
except as a person has learned the underlying principles 
of memorizing and has trained himself in the basic habits 
of memorizing. So far as the actual training of the mind 
that formal Grammar gives, that is very little; it cannot 



180 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

compare with certain other studies in which one can secure 
not only whatever training Grammar affords, but also 
both useful information and general culture. What lit- 
tle observation and reason the study of Grammar demands 
is of a low order; while as for the noblest faculty of the 
mind, imagination, that which Sir Joshua Reynolds calls 
"the residence of Truth" — that is hardly called into play 
at all. Cowper speaks of schools wherein the child finds 

No nourishment to feed his growing mind, 
But conjugated verbs and nouns declined. 

And of teachers. 

Who feed a pupil's intellect with store 
Of syntax, truly, but with little more. 

Too often our country schools have attempted to satisfy 
the children's desire for knowledge by feeding them upon 
the bare bones of formal Grammar and of no less for- 
mal Spelling. 

3. Formal Grammar should be taught in the country 
school, many teachers contend, because some of the pupils 
will one day be teachers themselves and will need to know 
the subject. Surely a teacher should be acquainted w^th 
grammar. One who professes to be able to teach should 
be master of much more than what he has actually to 
impart, just as a fountain needs a reservoir back of it, or, 
to change the figure, just as a growing plant needs not 
only the soil from which it directly draws its sustenance. 



GRAMMAR 181 

but also a sub-soil. The country teacher needs to know 
something about Grammar; but that we should teach 
grammar in the country schools for the sake of the few — 
even if we could teach it to pupils of common school age 
and attainments— that I deny. Most of the boys and 
girls in the rural schools are going to be, we hope, farm- 
ers and farmers' wives; and our curriculum should con- 
sist of subjects designed to make their lives richer. 
Country schools are not intended to prepare teachers; 
those who wish such preparation must look elsewhere: 
private study under the guidance of the teacher, outside 
of school hours; or to the secondary and normal schools. 
Having thus examined the three strongest arguments 
for the teaching of formal Grammar, let me now present 
some charges against the traditional method of teaching 
the subject. 

Arguments Against Our Methods of Teaching 

I. It is taught as a science. A science is a body of 
classified knowledge. In order to master a science one 
must be able to examine and test, to correlate and adjust 
the numerous. details of a vast subject, and to build these 
details up into a comprehensive system. Such power 
comes only when the mind is stored with observed facts 
related to the science, and when the brain is matured by 
growth and by study; a child does not possess such pow- 
ers. Of course, this is not equivalent to saying that a 



182 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

child cannot learn many of the facts of a science; the con- 
tention is that he cannot learn a science as a science — and 
that is the way we expect him to learn formal Grammar. 
Historically, arts came into existence before their kin- 
dred sciences. Primitive man counted and figured for 
centuries before the science of arithmetic was compiled. 
Men practiced the art of healing the sick long before the 
science of medicine existed. Men have plowed and sowed 
from the days of Cain, but only in the last few years has 
the science of agriculture come into being. And man had 
been talking and even writing many, many years when 
the first grammar was written. Art is the father of 
science. A science cannot be formulated until the art — 
that is, the practice — has gathered the material, tested it, 
accepted it or rejected it. Now, this law is as applicable 
to the child as to the race. The child must observe 
phenomena, discern relationships, he must have collected 
a mass of material and have partially organized it, before 
he is ready to master a science in its entirety. He must 
learn language before he is taught grammar. 

2. It violates the Inductive method. The Inductive 
method is that which attempts to build up knowledge by 
starting with what the child already knows, connecting a 
bit of new knowledge to that, still another to that, and 
so on, until the whole idea is comprehended. From the 
old to the related new, from the known to the related 



GRAMMAR 183 

unknown, is the process. It maintains that a general law, 
a principle, or a broad abstract idea can be understood 
only after the details, the subordinate facts, the phe- 
nomena are observed and partially classified. Now the 
usual way of teaching grammar constantly violates this 
method. Instead of leading the child to see for himself 
by using his own knowledge that "horse" is the name of 
something and that "jump" expresses action, we begin 
by having him learn that a noun is a name, that there 
are two general kinds, common and proper, and that 
"horse" is a common noun; that a verb is a word that 
expresses action, being or state, that there are certain 
kinds, and that "jump" is a regular, intransitive verb, 
present tense, etc. We should begin with what the pupil 
already knows, ask questions that require him to marshal 
his knowledge on the subject and gain new knowledge, 
lead him to infer more general truths; we should not 
begin with a general truth or a definition or a classifica- 
tion and work back to what the pupil knows. There is no 
short cut to the City of Knowledge. One may shorten 
the distance by memorizing and may clamber over the 
city walls; but when he converses with a true citizen he 
is immediately detected as a foreigner and an impostor. 

3. It has little connection with life. Formal Gram- 
mar is a book study; it has little relation to the occupa- 
tions or experiences or habits of life. This and other 



184 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

subjects are largely responsible for the wide giilt between 
life in the schoolroom and life in the home, on the farm. 
in the office and store. If formal Grammar were a 
material aid in learning our mother tongue, that would 
justify its inclusion in our course; but it does not do 
even that. The parsing of a noun or a verb does not lead 
to understanding or appropriating the word ; the gram- 
matical analysis of a sentence does not imply a rational 
understanding of the meaning. The child glibly reels 
off, *T am not. you are not. he is not." and then on the 
playgroimd says "1 ain't, you ain't, he ain't." Of course, 
that is habit; but it shows the uselessness of trying to 
teach language by the study of grammar. 

4. It is taught as if our language were highly inflected. 
Every student of Latin or German realizes that the syn- 
tax of English is comparatively simple. Our personal 
pronouns and verbs are the only parts of speech subject 
to great change in constniction, and the order of words 
in our sentences is flexible. \\'e have no need, then, of 
the elaborate classifications, the close distinctions, the 
complicated machinery of parsing and analysis. The 
popular formal grammars are arranged on the model of 
the Latin granmiar — which explains the statement a 
Latin teacher once made that a certain formal Grammar 
was the best possible text for public schools. His point 
of view doubtless was. that the study of the English gram- 



GRAMMAR 185 

mar would prepare boys and girls for the study of the 
first year Latin book. The mere statement carries with 
it its own refutation, for what we should study in the 
country school is something that will, prepare boys and 
girls for life on a farm. 

5. It is taught as if English were a dead language. 
As a matter of fact it is constantly changing. It is not 
an edifice, it is a tree; it is not a pool, it is a river. Its 
structure is being forever modified, its laws forever 
amended. Of course, few of us are permitted to go back 
to the fountain head of modern English, the Anglo-Saxon, 
and follow the language down to its present form, observ- 
ing the main stream and cross currents; but all of us can 
discern some of the changes that at this present moment 
are taking place, and can partially account for the 
changes. If we examine a grammar of a generation ago, 
we find that even in that brief period our language has 
undergone a noticeable change, grammatically and rhetori- 
cally; and this because of speaking and writing. Let us, 
then, consider grammar as a summary of language laws 
and amendments, as something alive and therefore eter- 
nally changing. 

Conclusion 

These are the indictments which educators have pre- 
ferred against formal Grammar. Progressive educators 
generally recommend that formal Grammar be eliminated 



186 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

below the high school, or that only the simple essentials 
be taught during the last year, or at most, two years. 
Country teachers should be the first to welcome the more 
practical methods of language, for it is they who, 
troubled always with the eternal problem of time, will 
benefit most. Grammar, as a separate study, should have 
a minor place in the curriculum of the rural school. 
What little Grammar is needed — and it is astonishing 
how little really is needed — can be taught in a few les- 
sons if deferred until pupils are mentally prepared for 
that kind of study, and the parts of grammar most worth 
while can be applied and fixed in the study of language 
and composition. 

The Query Box 
I. Would yon have A'O Grammar in the Country School f 

I believe that the study of Grammar in the country school 
should be completely subordinated to the language and com- 
position work. As a separate study, it should occupy very 
little time. Most of the Grammar country children need 
can, I believe, be obtained in connection with the study of 
Language, and from the Literature and Composition work. 
Of course, every child needs to know some grammar, but 
he should know it as a phase of language work. Sometimes 
a passage in literature cannot be definitely understood with- 
out some knowledge of syntax ; sometimes a sentence in 
a composition is incorrect from some grammatical stand- 
point ; very often the Language book develops some phase 
of Grammar. When such occasions arise, then I should 
teach Grammar. I should want also a half -hour at regular 



GRAMMAR 187 

intervals in which to gather scattered impressions and to 
assist the pupils in generalizing and in formulating rules and 
principles. 

It is but honest to confess that the views expressed in 
this chapter are more or less personal. A good many writers 
on Grammar believe that the subject should have a separate 
place in the elementary school. I cite the reader to a book 
or two that takes this side of the controversy (see page 276). 
But it is my unshaken conviction that the country school has 
little time for Grammar as a separate branch. 



CHAPTER SEVEN 

LANGUAGE 

What is especially to be emphasized in this chapter is 
how to teach the boys and girls in country schools to talk 
well. From either the practical or cultural side, this is 
one of the most important functions of the rural school, 
and we need not apologize for devoting some attention to 
it. Let me suggest five different means of teaching 
language. 

Five Suggestions for Teaching Language 

I. The teacher himself must speak well — correctly and 
expressively. Many of us do not. Many teachers use 
the wrong forms of verbs or pronouns, make mistakes in 
forming plurals, fail to secure the proper agreement 
between subject and verb or between a pronoun and its 
antecedents — in short, use "bad English." Moreover, 
many a teacher has too small a vocabulary or talks "book- 
talk," or uses English so thin-bloodedj so extremely pre- 
cise that his language is forceless. Now, it is evident 
that an infant learns to talk by imitating the speech of 
his elders; and it is also true, if not so evident, that an 
older child learns to talk in the same manner. Lnitation 

188 



LANGUAGE 189 

is the largest factor in the process of learning to use the 
mother tongue. The order is : conscious imitation, uncon- 
scious imitation, habit. Good speech is a habit, poor 
speech is a habit. Of course, the child's horne folks are 
largely responsible for his language. The teacher may 
use the choicest of English and so present excellent models 
for imitation; but if the child has already established 
incorrect language habits and if he daily hears incorrect 
language at home, he will ignore, more or less, the model 
of the teacher. Like Penelope, the child unravels at night 
the web so carefully woven by day. But the teacher's 
duty is plain : he must use good English. It has tremen- 
dous influence in itself, and it is invaluable in connec- 
tion with other attempts to teach the language. 

2. The teacher must insist upon good English in every 
study and in every phase of school life. Incorrect, care- 
less speech is equally to be condemned, whether in arith- 
metic or in the language lesson. Do not allow your boys 
and girls to say : "That ain't so;" "I never did nothing:" 
"I seen the book" — anywhere, at any time. This is the 
true way to teach practical Grammar. Of course, you 
must be deft and diplomatic in this. Do not halt a child in 
the full career of a recitation or on the playground, in 
order to point out a slip in English; but when you have 
an opportunity, refer to the blunder. And do not be 
satisfied with pointing it out; have the child repeat the 



190 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

correct form. Get your pupils in the habit of observing 
mistakes in the language of others; that inevitably leads 
to the habit of observing their own speech. Do not weary 
in this; keep at it. You may not see results for a while, 
for it takes time and patience to break up one habit and 
establish another. But many a country school has been 
made almost a model in language because the teacher talks 
correctly and insists upon his pupils talking correctly. 

3. Require a reasonable amount of composition work. 
In the next chapter this phase of English work will be 
discussed ; here attention is called to the fact that much 
which a pupil learns in writing extends over into his 
speaking. It must be remembered, however, that the lan- 
guage of speech is different from the language of writ- 
ing. }vluch is permitted, much is even desirable, in talk, 
that is very undesirable in writing. Do not make your 
children use "book English." But let them carry over 
from their composition work to their speech as much as 
they can: new words; ideas of proper sentence length, 
proper emphasis; ideals of exactness in use of words, 
order and preparation of thoughts. We talk a good deal 
in these days about oral composition; have much of this 
in connection with your school work. Re-tellmg of 
stories in reading and history; descriptions of persons 
and places in history and geography; discussions of sub- 
jects in civil government and agriculture — any theme 



LANGUAGE 191 

Upon which your pupils should have ideas is good material 
for oral composition. In this try to show your children 
how to collect their thoughts and how to express them in 
correct, forcible words. 

4. Make close correlation between reading and litera- 
ture and your pupils" language. Encourage them to 
observe and appropriate new words and striking expres- 
sions. Show them how great writers order their ideas; 
show them that a single word, if picturesque, is more 
effective than a whole paragraph of cold-blooded vocables. 
Of course, you cannot turn out great authors from your 
country school; but you can give your pupils power to 
admire the best literature and to set up ideals of language 
toward which to work. In general, a person who reads 
much talks well. Encourage, then, intelligent reading; a 
good story will often be a more effective teacher of lan- 
guage than you are. 

The importance of the school library and the formation 
of the reading habit has been already discussed. A child 
should rarely be asked to analyze the style of an author; 
but we may be very sure that he will absorb a good deal 
that will appear when he talks. Moreover, reading gives 
the child something to talk about. Students of country 
life say that country people do not talk enough; that they 
are inclined to be taciturn. The reason is not far to 
seek. When people live solitary lives, they never form 



192 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

the habit of conversing much. But there is another rea- 
son : they do not have topics of conversation. Now one 
of the best topics for talk, excepting people and their 
activity, is books. If you encourage a child to read 
books, you not only present to him excellent models of 
language, but you give him some motive for talking. 
And if the children get the habit of talking, they will be 
much more likely to enjoy conversation when they are 
men and women. 

5. If your state, or your district, has adopted a lan- 
guage book or a series of books, make good use of it. 
We should teach language at all times ; but we should con- 
centrate on the subject during the time specifically set 
apart for the language period. Much of the material in 
the language books applies both to written and oral 
speech ; see to it that your children do not get the mis- 
taken idea that the language lessons are only for writing. 
The language books should be guides and standards for 
speech, and the recitation period is the time for discuss- 
ing those general principles of language that underlie all 
talk and writing. If your school is still using the old- 
fashioned formal Grammar as a text, see if you cannot 
obtain permission to use a language book as supplemen- 
tary. You can teach language without a book, but the 
book will make your work easier and more systematic. 
Assuming that you have a good language book or a 



J^ANGUAGE 193 

series, let me make some rather miscellaneous sugges- 
tions concerning their use. 

How to Use the Language Books 

1. These books should be thought-developers. Almost 
every section calls for some mental operations : observa- 
tion, comparison, judgment, imagination, memory. See 
to it that your teaching calls forth thought, that it 
requires more than mere memorizing of words. *'The 
better the thinking, the better the speaking," is a prov- 
erb essentially sound. 

2. Do not omit any sections of the book, unless you 
are very sure that your children do not need the work 
comprised therein. Sometimes we teachers take it for 
granted that the child is too far advanced. We need to 
remember that the child is ignorant of many facts which 
have been in our possession so long that we take it for 
granted that almost every one knows them. We need to 
remember, also, that the child's mental processes are 
immature, that he is not able to think as connectedly as 
we do. Every teacher needs to follow the practice of 
Thomas Fuller's teacher : to hang "clogs on the nimble- 
ness of his own soul, so that his scholars may go along 
with him." If you are tempted to omit a page or a sec- 
tion as childish, just remember that the child is childish. 

3. Do not forget that the learning of the mother 
tongue is a complicated process. The subject matter may 



194 ENGLISH IX THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

seem unrelated to language lessons, but you must keep in 
mind that the books are carefully planned and that each 
part has an organic connection with the general scheme 
of the authors. Teach the selections for memorizing, 
the picture work : all is grist that comes to the language 
mill. 

4. Drill unceasingly on the practical language work. 
Even when a certain fact or principle is understood, keep 
drilling away until the ideas become fixed in habits. 

5 . When your pupils have learned a fact ( for example, 
that a direct quotation should be enclosed in quotation 
marks), and you have passed on to another section, keep 
referring to that fact. All the forms of spoken and 
written language need constant repetition. 

6. In teaching the facts of grammar, lead up to them 
and make them intelligible. Do not allow grammar to 
become a book study. The language books show you how 
to proceed; follow directions implicitly, and insert any 
ideas of your own that will make the learning process 
easier. 

7. Constantly correlate the language books with the 
spoken language of your pupils. 

8. Never let your language lesson be crowded out of 
the daily program. 

9. Supplement the subject matter of the books with 



LANGUAGE 195 

any work which you feel your pupils need. Let this sup- 
plementary work be drawn from country life and 
conditions. 

10. Follow' your state manual containing the graded 
course of study in planning the work to be covered each 
year and month. If your class can do more than the 
required amount, assign supplementary work. Do not 
push ahead, and do not drop the language work from 
the daily program. 

11. When the Language Book refers to any poem or 
story, look that up, or have your children look it up, and 
make use of it as suggested in the book. If the selec- 
tion is not in your library, make a note of it; and when 
you have money for new books, see that the selection 
wanted is in one of the books purchased. Thus, in a few 
years all the books needed will be in the school library. 

Some General Suggestions 

So much for the five principal means of teaching lan- 
guage in country schools. Let me now add some miscel- 
laneous suggestions. 

1. Organize a literary society for your oldest pupils. 
The teacher may serve as critic or president and point 
out mistakes and suggest means of improving the lan- 
guage used. 

2. Tell stories and have your children retell and drama- 



196 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

tize them. This sort of work is very valuable for the 
teaching of language. 

3. Frequent the play-ground and observe the speech 
used there. Insist that the language be correct. 

4. Endeavor in all ways to encourage the wish to speak 
well and to arouse a pride in the English language. 
From the moment a child feels a strong desire to keep his 
language free from errors and to make it effective, from 
that moment he will do far more for himself than any 
teacher can do for him. Did your father ever give you 
a patch of ground for your own and tell you that you 
could have all you made out of it? And do you not 
remember how hard you worked, of your own accord, 
to keep it free from weeds and well plowed and hoed? 
That was because you felt the sense of possession. If you 
can cause your pupils to feel a personal pride in their 
language, they will cultivate their speech and will keep 
it free from weeds. " 

5. Take advantage of the conditions peculiar to coun- 
try schools. You have all grades; encourage the older 
children to help the younger ones in their speech. You 
have a much closer community life in the country school 
than is possible in a town school, and from this compact 
organization you should derive some assistance in teach- 
ing language. Your children are not so likely to picl-c up 
meaningless slang or silly superlatives as city children 



LANGUAGE 197 

are; they are not exposed to so many influences inimical 
to good speech. Make use of your opportunities as a 
country school teacher. 

6. Do not encourage the children to correct the lan- 
guage of their parents. Be diplomatic in this regard. If 
a child defends an incorrect expression by stating that his 
father uses it, do not attack or ridicule the father ; merely 
insist that the correct expression is the better one, and 
show why. If need arise, speak to the parents and win 
them over ; you can do it and it is well worth while. 

7. Purchase a large, modern dictionary for the school 
room, and show the children how to use it. 

8. Build up your school library. Add the best books 
for children and encourage reading. Then see to it that 
the pupils .=how the influence of their reading in their 
speaking. 

Conclusion 

Many of these suggestions apply quite as well to a 
city teacher as to a country teacher. That is natural, 
for the general method is the same. But country teach- 
ers have one problem that city teachers do not have : the 
problem of getting the children to talk. Country chil- 
dren are undoubtedly more reserved than city children; 
they do not express themselves so freely. Their experi- 
ence does not bring them sufficiently into contact with 
other people to rub off their self-consciousness and to call 



198 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

forth a desire to interchange ideas. Many country folk 
could say of themselves what one of Shakespeare's char- 
acters says of himself: 

My tongue's use is to me no more 
Than an unstringed viol or a harp, 
Or like a cunning instrument cased up, 
Or, being open, put into his hands 
That knows no touch to tune the harmony. 

It is, therefore, one of the primary duties of the rural 
teacher to awaken the desire of expression in his pupils, 
to string the vocal harp and teach the children to "tune 
the harmony." To this end, the teacher should be chary 
of adverse criticism; he should allow and encourage his 
pupils to talk freely and without reserve. Correctness is 
desirable, but force, vigor, picturesqueness, ease are 
more desirable. Let us first awaken in our children the 
desire to talk and encourage them to talk fluently and 
spontaneously, then we can correct and refine. Let us 
first loose the bounden tongue, then train the tongue to 
move aright. 

The Query Box 
Should a country teacher permit his pupils to use slang? 

It has been my experience and observation, as well as the 
opinion of country teachers I have talked with, that country 
children do not use much slang. It is not as serious a prob- 
lem with country folk as it is with city folk. Slang is usually 
urban. It does stray into rural districts, however, and the 
rural teacher must adopt some policy in regard to its use. 



LANGUAGE 199 

In the first place, it must be remembered that there is good 
slang and worthless slang. Some slang words and phrases 
are virile and picturesque, and their use in ordinary, familiar 
conversation gives real brightness and force to language. 
"To make good," for example, is much more suggestive 
than "to succeed ;" "to cram for examination" is more accu- 
rately and picturesquely descriptive of the idea to be ex- 
pressed than is any elegant English one may employ. These 
words and phrases are often more humorous than is sedate, 
formal, "literary" language. On the other hand, much slang 
is tame and meaningless. To apply "That's great" or "Isn't 
that the limit ?" to everything that is unusual in any respect 
is to impoverish the language. Good slang may be used in 
free-and-easy conversation, worthless slang should be elimi- 
nated from all talk. When one uses slang, he should be 
conscious of the fact that he is using it, and should indicate 
this by stressing the word or pronouncing it in such a way 
that his hearers will understand that the speaker realizes he 
is employing slang. 

As a general rule, country children should be taught that 
a good deal of the slang they use is inferior to the correct 
language it attempts to displace. In the reaction against the 
bookish, stilted language, which was so fashionable years 
ago, we are somewhat inclined to go to the other extreme 
and encourage talk that is too free and loose. It is not neces- 
sary to go to either extreme. Country children should be 
trained to use idiomatic, conversational, natural language ; 
but they should be taught to eschew most of the slang 
phrases that, originating in the city, are nevertheless often 
forgotten there before they have reached rural districts. 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

' COMPOSITION WORK 

A generation ago, 3'ea, a decade ago, there were thou- 
sands of rural schools in the United States wherein not 
a- single composition was written the whole winter long. 
Happily, our country schools are improving in this 
respect, as in others. Yet it is a common complaint among 
city teachers that the pupils that enter the city school 
from the country are woefully lacking in even the rudi- 
mentary knowledge and training in writing. High 
School teachers of English testify that many students 
from country districts state, in order to account for their 
being so far behind in writing, that they have never writ- 
ten a composition. Not seldom do teachers of English 
in Normal Schools find in their classes young men and 
women utterly untrained in the simplest details of writ- 
ing a letter or a composition. Evidently, many country 
teachers do not discern tlie importance or the possibilities 
of this work as a factor in the education of boys and 
girls. Let me, then, devote the first part of this chapter 
to a discussion of the educative values of composition 
writing. 

200 



COMPOSITION WORK 201 

Education ]\ihics of Composition JVork — Training in 

Thinking 

The word "composition" is derived from two Latin 
words that mean "bring together." A house is, in this 
sense, a composition, in that the stone, brick, wood and 
other material are brought together in a certain order. 
A urittcn composition implies a plan, in accordance with 
which certain ideas must be selected and arranged ; and it 
necessitates thought. For example : We are asked to 
describe a house. We must first lay out a plan. We 
decide perhaps to describe the exterior, then take up the 
interior — downstairs, then upstairs, passing from room to 
room in a definite order. That is planning, outlining. 
But we cannot mention everything in the house; we must 
omit some details. That is selecting. Moreover, of the 
details to be mentioned some are less important, so will 
be brought in incidentally. That is subordinating. Again, 
all the details must be arranged to bring out one central 
idea. That is emphasizing and unifying. And all these 
different parts of our description must be mortised to- 
gether, so that all the materials of our composition com- 
bine to form one "edifice," so to speak, and not a num- 
ber of small buildings. That is soldering, connecting. 
All this is merely organized, consecutive thinking. The 
first and greatest educative value in composition work, 
then, is that it makes the writer think. 



202 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Now, ihiiikiiii;' is hard work — so hard lUai \ cry tew 
of us o\cr itululi^o in il. \\u{ one ol ilio cardinal functions 
of iho iniblic schools is to train minds so ihai tho)- can 
think. And of those subjects adajiied to produce think- 
ing, composition work is. in many respects, the most im- 
portant. Arithmetic trains a certain part of the brain, a 
certain intellectual faculty ; its work, however, is limited 
— the trainiui^- does not make the mind capable of think- 
ing;" oi\ other subjects. Init com]iosiiion work draws its 
material from all tields of knowledge and sets moxing all 
the wheels of the menial tnachinery. Children are com- 
posing when they tell how corn grows or how the heart 
acts, when they describe Greenland or narrate Paul Re- 
vere's Ride — providing they are not just reeling it otl" 
from memory. What writien composition work does is 
to enable the child to organi;-e and connect the material 
according to a pl;tn: it trains him to think more thor- 
oughly than almost any other kind of school activity. 
And we are failing to make use of an important and 
convenient means of inspiring and training in the ditVicnlt 
art of thinking w hen we do not require our boys and girls 
to do composition work. 

Drcpoiiiuj of Imf'rrssiLVis 

\\riting compositions aids the yoimg student in another 
way. It has been said that expression ileepens the im- 
pression — which means that when a thought or feeling 



COMPOSITION WOKK 203 

works its way oiil into action of some kind, llic orii^inal 
lluuiL^lit or Iccliiii;' is intcnsilicik If a kov constructs a 
sk'ik for instance, ke lias a lictlcr conception of \\ kat a 
sled is Ikan if ke kad merely read of one or seen one, or 
even coasted on one. Mr. Squeers, in "Nickolas Nickle- 
k.y," nnilerstood lliis principle; you rememker ikat Ike 
manner in wkick ke laui^kt tke word "korse" was to 
rcMjuire ike pupil to spell and define tke word, tken j;o 
curry tke animal — tkoui^k perkaps a modern teacker would 
kave tke pupil curry tke korse llrst. Now, tkis i)syclio- 
logical principle of impression and expression finds an 
excellent illustration in composition work. Tke moment 
a ckild expresses kimself clearly in written words, on any 
subject, tkat sukject is imprinted more deeply in kis mind. 
Of course, tke best expression is action; kut, as Emer- 
son says, "Words are also actions, and actions are a kind 
of words." Tke second educative value, tken, of compo- 
sition work is tkat it writes tkougkts and feelings more 
indelibly on the brain. 

Training in Writing 

If composition work did no more tkan to train in 
thinking and to implant ideas more irradicably, tkat would 
be suiTicient to justify our giving it an important place 
in tke country school. But it has other values. For one 
thing, it trains the country boy and girl so that, when 
they are country man and woman, they can write well. 



204 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Many teachers think that this is the chief benefit from 
composition writing. It is not, I believe ; for the average 
man and woman, in country or town, do not need to write 
very much. But there is correspondence with one's friends 
and relatives; almost everyone needs to know how to 
write a satisfactory friendly letter. Then there is busi- 
ness correspondence; the up-to-date farmer writes a good 
many business letters in the course of a year, especially 
if he handles cattle or takes up any side-line. And, 
needless to say, anyone will write a better letter, whether 
to a friend or to a business house, if he has had some 
training in letter-writing. Besides, in every community 
someone should send a weekly budget of news to the 
country newspaper; training is needed for that. And 
then there is the occasional paper to prepare for the 
farmers' institute or Grange meeting. All this I shall 
discuss later in this chapter. Let me here but call atten- 
tion to the fact that, if the country school is to be a 
preparation for country life, it should train its boys and 
girls to do efficiently the writing that will fall to their 
lot when they are men and women. 

Training in Talking 

But composition work does more than this. As was 
pointed out in the last chapter, much of the training- 
received in writing can be carried over into talking. 
When a child learns to write accurate, suggestive words, 



COMPOSITION WORK 205 

and to mold his thoughts into well-proportioned, unified 
sentences and paragraphs, he is pretty sure to improve 
his spoken language in these same respects. Pretty sure ; 
though we remember the poet Goldsmith, who, accord- 
ing to one of his friends, 

" Wrote like an angel and talked like Poor Poll " ; 

and we remember what an unsatisfactory talker was 
Addison — "a silent parson in a tie-wig," someone called 
him. But in general, he who writes well can talk well, 
whether he wishes to or not. Of course, the language of 
talk is not the language of writing; but they are closely 
enough related to possess many kindred qualities. Com- 
position work has this educative value, then: it helps 
train pupils to talk. Most assuredly we need training 
in this, for very few of us converse well. Many of us 
do not have sufficient courage to enter the stream of 
talk ; and many of us when once in the stream are content 
to float idly about on the surface, or if we dive, we imme- 
diately grapple with an adversary in argument. We must 
be trained to talk well ; and country folk especially must 
be trained because they have fewer opportunities to learn 
the art from hearing others. Is it worth while to talk 
well ? Ik Walton declares that "good company and good 
converse are the very sinews of virtue." Certainly, talk- 
ing with a good friend is one of the rare pleasures of life; 
it stimulates us, puts us on our mettle, inspires us to 



206 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

think rapidly and talk tiuently, reveals ourselves to our- 
selves. 

Training in Spelling and PcninansJiip 

Composition work has other educative values. It is an 
excellent means of teaching spelling and penmanship — 
excellent because the "formal" is connected with the "con- 
tent,'' Let me devote a paragraph to an explanation of 
what is meant by those words "formal'' and "content." 

"'Formal" and "Content" Studies 

■ Certain studies are called "formal" because they deal 
with forms and symbols. Thus the figure "i'' is a symbol 
to represent one unit; the figure "2" is a symbol to repre- 
sent one unit added to one unit. Now, the figures "i" 
and "2" might be transposed so that the symbol "2" might 
represent one unit and the symbol "i" two units, for 
there is little in the shape or intrinsic meaning of the 
figures to indicate just what the}^ stand for. In other 
words, when we say that "i" represents one unit, we are 
setting up an artificial symbol, not a natural idea ; it has 
meaning only because we have all agreed to let it repre- 
sent an idea. \Mien we teach the letters "a,'' "b," "c," 
we are teaching artificial, conventionalized symbols. 
There are houses and trees and dogs and water in Na- 
ture, but no one ever saw an "a" until it was created by 
man to stand for an idea or a sound. Moreover, the 
capital letters are difl:erent from the small letters, and 



COMPOSITION WORK 207 

the written symbols are different from the printed sym- 
bols : "e" in script is not the same as "e" in print. Words, 
too. are symbols. "Dog" is a symbol for the animal we 
call the "canine"; but it might just as well, originally, 
have been employed to represent the name of the animal 
we call "cat." Obviously, a good deal of the child's 
time must be devoted to learning the symbols in his vari- 
ous studies. But these symbols are not interesting in 
themselves. Any boy is interested in a pony; but would 
feel no interest at all in the letters "p-o-n-y," or in the 
word "pony," unless he could discern the connection be- 
tween the symbols and the ideas that are embodied, so to 
speak, in the symbols. Writing and spelling are "formal" 
studies, then. "Content" studies are those that contain 
materials and things and ideas rather than forms and 
figures. Nature study, much of geography, agriculture, 
history and hygiene (if properly taught) — these are "con- 
tent" studies. These subjects are most important as far 
as real knowledge is concerned, and they are therefore 
the most interesting to children. The formal studies must 
be taught, of course; for the child needs to know forms 
and symbols so that he can grasp the ideas expressed in 
books by these manufactured signs. But since the formal 
studies are devoid of intrinsic interest, they must, as com- 
pletely and as rapidly as possible, be connected with the 
content studies. 

Now for our main theme, after this explanatory di- 



208 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

gression. Composition writing is an excellent way to 
gain facility in penmanship and orthography, because the 
child will learn the formal in connection with the content. 
When the pupil writes : "John stayed in the city the 
whole day," he learns, incidentally, to spell "stayed" and 
"city" and "whole"; and at the same time he is getting 
training in penmanship. 

Other Values of Composition JVork 

.And composition work has other -educative values be- 
sides the ones just discussed. It furnishes excellent seat- 
work, for one thing. ]\Ioreover, the country teacher, who 
is always hard pressed for time, can occasionally dispense 
with a class recitation and assign written work on some 
important phase of the lesson, while he can devote that 
time to other recitations. Suppose, for example, that 
your United States history recitation is from 9 to 9 :20, 
and that the lesson for this particular day is the "Winter 
in Valley Forge." Now, if your B geography class needs 
some extra attention on this day, you may assign your 
history class some written work — say, an imaginative 
description of the camp in Valley Forge, — while you 
spend that twenty minutes with your geography class. 
Then that evening you can look over the compositions 
handed in by your history class, make corrections and 
suggestions, and return the papers to the pupils. 



COMPOSITION WORK 209 

Summary of Values 

Surely a strong case has been made out for the in- 
clusion of composition work in the daily program of the 
country school. It deepens impressions and furnishes a 
convenient mode of expression ; it trains in practical writ- 
ing, trains in talking, assists in the learning of necessary 
but uninteresting symbols, and aids the teacher in keep- 
ing his pupils profitably busy and in saving time. And 
to crown all, it is interesting to the children, if the teacher 
knows how to adapt the work to their capabilities and 
interests. A reasonable amount of composition work 
should be required in every country school (I shall later 
discuss what I mean by a "reasonable" amount) ; and 
any teacher who does not have this work done in his 
school is recreant to his trust, in that he is not doing the 
very best he can for the children under his tuition. 

The "I Can't" Objection 

"But we don't know how to teach composition writ- 
ing," is the objection country teachers often urge to re- 
marks like the above. And doubtless some of you who 
have read the foregoing have shrugged your shoulders 
and shrugged the whole matter off your consciences with 
the bald statement that you cannot do the work. "All 
that you say may be true," you concede ; "but we simply 
can't teach composition work." I wonder if some of you 
aren't accusing yourselves in order to excuse yourselves. 



210 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Of course, you cannot teach composition work as well as 
one who has had two or three years of training in a 
Normal School; but any of you can do a great deal more 
than you have been doing — if you haven't been doing 
anything at all. In the concluding chapter of this book 
is a discussion of the various ways in which a country 
• teacher may improve, in teaching his mother tongue ; here 
I wish simply to emphasize the fact that you, without 
any special training, can start composition work this 
very week, and do pretty well with it, too. 

What Is a Composition? 

How? Well, first, by freeing yourselves from the 
false conception that a "composition" is a long, dry essay 
on Truth, or Friendship, or Education, or other abstract 
themes. Do you remember reading in one of McGuffy's 
Readers a selection entitled, I believe, "Susy's Composi- 
tion"?* 

Susy's Composition 

The teacher has told Susy that she must hand in a 
composition on the following day. The little girl is in 
the depths of despair, for she has never written a com- 
position and does not know what to write about or how 
to begin. She begins to jot down copy-book generalities 

* If you are not acquainted with this story, turn to page 220 
of Dr. L. H. Bailey's "The Nature Study Idea," Revised edition 
— Macmillan Company — and there read Dr. Bailey's struggle 
with his first composition. 



COMPOSITION WORK 211 

on Duty, or some topic as far above her powers as that; 
but naturally she cannot make any headway. Presently 
her mother sets her right by suggesting that she sit at the 
window and describe what she sees from there. This 
Susy does. And her description of the scene is, the next 
day, pronounced by her teacher a "very good composi- 
tion." Now, that teacher may have known enough to 
recognize a good composition when he saw one; but he 
did not know how to set his pupils at work to produce a 
good composition. He made three egregious blunders : 

Mistakes of Susy's Teacher 

I. He required his pupils to write a composition with- 
out assigning them a subject. Do not make that mistake. 
Always assign the subject, or, at least, the theme. (See 
page 227.) And you should make the assignment exact 
and definite. You will save time and prevent worry and 
discouragement if you spend some time in explaining very 
definitely just what you want your pupils to do. You 
need not mention the word "composition." Most chil- 
dren, like Susy, are frightened by the word, especially if 
it does not signify something familiar. And most chil- 
dren, like Susy, will write very well, on interesting sub- 
jects, will write for a long time without knowing that 
they are writing "compositions" — as Monsieur Jourdain 
in Moliere's comedy is much astonished to learn that all 
his life he has, unknowingly, been speaking prose. 



212 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

J. Susy's teacher should not only have assigned a sub- 
ject tor the composition, but he shotild also have chosen a 
subject from the experience and within the observation 
of his pupils, A Bacon may write on "Truth," an Emer- 
son on "Friendship" ; but your children can write only on 
narrow, concrete subjects. It was this same Emerson who 
said that every generalization is a step toward the intinite ; 
and your pupils must always deal with the iinite. the 
detinite — which means the limited, the bounded. Select 
subjects within their scope: incidents from the daily life 
on the fanii, picnics, trips to the circus, to the cotinty 
fair; descriptions of pet animals, of their home, the 
schoolhouse. of views from a neighboring hill ; short 
essays on some phase of fanning or of housekeeping. 
You should also assign subjects based on the pupils' 
studies, certain topics from geography, histon,- and 
hygiene. Occasionally you may have the pupils repro- 
duce a story you have read or told them, or have them 
write short original stories on a certain assigned theme. 
Do not fancy that the children are losing time when they 
express their thoughts on tliese rather childish subjects: 
they lose time only when we force them to write upon 
themes too deep for them. And do not fancy that you 
cannot find subjects sufficient: every child in your school 
has had experience enough for a folio volume of compo- 
sitions. All vou have to do is to studv. closelv and svm- 



COMPOSITION WORK 213 

pathetically, their lives, and to glance back into your own 
childish interests and thoughts. 

3. Susy's teacher should not have made it possible 
for his pupils to say that they had never written a com- 
position. Some of us cannot remember when we learned 
to read and to write ; neither should we be able to remem- 
ber our first composition. Children should be composing 
from the first grade on. At first the work should be oral ; 
but composing, either oral or written, should be a part 
of the daily program. Of course, the teacher should be 
careful not to require composition work in advance of 
the grade and of the pupil's powers; but written com- 
posing should begin as soon as the child has facility in 
writing. For the first few years this written work should 
be very brief and on the simplest subjects: just a few 
sentences on "My Lunch Basket," "My Dog," "Going 
After the Cows," or some childish theme; or a reproduc- 
tion of some story read by the teacher — anything that 
will give the child an opportunity to express his own 
thoughts. As he climbs higher up in the grades and ob- 
tains a more extended view of life, both by experience 
and by reading and study, he should, of course, be able 
to write longer compositions, on more complex themes; 
he should be able to arrange his material more logically 
and express his thoughts more accurately and forcibly — 
though, as I have said, the subjects assigned should never 



214 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

be beyond his horizon. Here is a sound maxim : Never 
assign a subject to teach your pupils anything new, but 
only to cause them to collect and express their thoughts 
on something familiar. Naturally, in gathering and ex- 
pressing the familiar, the old, the child will discover much 
that is new; hut the process should always be the induc- 
tive one : frouT the known to the related unknown. 

Qualities of Good Language 

Having discussed the chief educative values in com- 
position work and pointed out three fundamental errors 
of an untrained teacher, let me now proceed to a study 
of the qualities of good language. Teachers must, of 
course, have definite, clear-cut ideas of what good Eng- 
lish is, so that they can direct their pupils intelligently 
in their efforts to attain command of good English. 

The three most important qualities in good written 
English are unity, coherence and emphasis. These will 
be considered in order. 

Unity 

Unity is one-ness. A unit, as we learned in arithmetic, 
is one; unity is the quality of one-ness. A sentence has 
unity when it expresses just one main thought. A short 
time ago there appeared in a country newspaper this 
statement, in an account of a wedding: "The groom is a 
popular young business man of this place and the happy 
couple will take a trip to Florida." Nozv, that sentence 



COMPOSITION WORK 215 

lacks unity, because it contains two thoughts only re- 
motely connected: the groom is a popular young man, 
and the couple will take a trip to Florida. The connec- 
tion between the two ideas is not close enough to justify 
their being placed in one sentence. Here is another sen- 
tence that lacks unity: "We passed the farm of Robert 
Jemison, who was forty years a member of the Legisla- 
ture." The violation of unity is not so apparent, since 
til is is a complex sentence, while the one above is com- 
pound; but each sentence contains two ideas instead of 
one. So much for unity in the sentence. Unity in the 
paragraph demands that only one main thought shall be 
developed in each paragraph. For instance, the para- 
graph I am now writing will fail in unity if I discuss 
anything except the subject of unity. I must not depart 
from that general idea; I must not take up the subject of 
coherence or emphasis — else my paragraph will lack unity. 
A good many writers are careful to put, near the begin- 
ning of each paragraph, a sentence that states the gist of 
the whole paragraph — a sort of guide to the reader, so 
that, as he reads, he may be able to see the bearing of 
each succeeding sentence on the theme of the paragraph. 
Snch a sentence is called a "topic sentence," because it 
states the main idea, or topic, of the paragraph. But 
whether the paragraph has a topic sentence or not, it 
should have unity. Likezvise, a whole composition must 
have unity. In this chapter, for example, I can take up 



216 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

notliing- but composition work. If I treat reading or 
spelling-. T violate the unity, the one-ness of the chapter — 
unless, of course. I connect fliost" subjects with composi- 
tion work. 

Coherence 

Coherence is that quality of language by virtue of 
which ditTerent ideas are joined to each other. In the 
last paragraph, for instance, it is not enough that all the 
sentences be concerned with the subject of unity: they 
must also be joined to each other. Certain words and 
phrases are used for this purpose ; the most important 
of then the printer has italicized. These words and 
phrases form a sort of bridge from one idea to the next, 
so that the reader can cross more easily. The paragraphs 
should be coupled in the same manner. This paragraph 
should have been cohered more closely with the preced- 
ing one. Of course. I began by stating that I was going 
to discuss unity, coherence and emphasis, so that you 
probably knew that when I had tinished the tirst I would 
begin the second; but I should have put up some kind of 
a sign-board to prevent your getting off the road. I will 
connect this paragraph with the next by saying: "So 
much for coherence; let us now turn to the quality of 

emphasis." 

E)fiphasis 

Emphasis is that quality of language by virtue of 
which the important ideas are placed in the conspicuous 



COMPOSITION WORK 217 

places. Now, the most conspicuous places in the sentence 
and paragraph are the beginning and the end. That is 
the reason we do not usually allow a preposition, a weak 
adverb, or a forceless phrase to come at the close of a 
sentence, or an insignificant sentence at the close of a 
paragraph. Moreover, the law of emphasis demands that 
the different ideas in a sentence be so arranged that they 
emphasize the one important idea. For example, in the 
sentence, "I went to town and bought some sugar," the 
two clauses, *'I went to town" and "I bought some sugar," 
have precisely the same importance, grammatically and 
logically. But perhaps you wish to emphasize the latter ; 
then you remodel the sentence thus : "I bought some 
sugar, while I was in town." If you wish to lay stress 
on the other idea, you write : "I went to town to buy some 
sugar." This does not express quite the same idea as 
the other; but it illustrates this fundamental rule of em- 
phasis : Place the important idea in the principal clause, 
and the less important idea in the dependent clause or 
phrase. A complex sentence is usually preferable to a 
compound, from the standpoint both of unity and em- 
phasis. 

These three qualities, unity, coherence and emphasis, 
characterize all good language, written or spoken — 
though, of course, conversation is allowed to wander 
more than written speech. If you will turn to Washing- 
ton Irving's "Sketch Book," you will find that these 



218 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

qualities are noticeable features of his style; that is one 
reason he is so easy and pleasant to read. Addison and 
Macaulay excel in the same respects. 

Qualities of Good Words 

But these are qualities of sentences, paragraphs, whole 
compositions. Let us now examine the qualities of words. 
These are precision, naturalness, and suggestiveness. 

Precision 

Precision is exactness; it is hitting the nail square on 
the head. The antonym is looseness, carelessness; it is 
striking the nail a glancing blow. The one who uses 
precise English does not say "evening" when he means 
"afternoon," or "reckon" when he means "think," or 
"awful" when he means "very," or "girl" when he means 
"sweetheart," or "Professor" when he means — or should 
mean — "J^Iister." Of course, we should not be finical 
about words, but neither should we allow ourselves to 
use slip-shod language, either in writing or in talking. 
The dictionary is usually a safe guide in matters of pre- 
cision, though it is not so safe as a wide reading in choice 
literature. 

Naturalness 

Naturalness in language means freedom from bookish, 
pedantic, stilted words and expressions. The one who 
uses natural English does not say "quantities of persons" 



COMPOSITION WORK 219 

instead of "lots of people," or "to whom are you talk- 
ing" ? instead of "who (or "whom) are you talking to"? 
or "intermission" instead of "recess," or "adieu" instead 
of "good-by," or "exceedingly" instead of "pretty" (as 
an adverb). The principle of naturalness is sometimes 
opposed to the principle of accuracy, but not often; usu- 
ally one can be both accurate and natural. Of course, 
the question of naturalness depends upon the subject and 
the audience or the readers ; but so far as country children 
are concerned, they should be encouraged to speak with 
as much freedom and spontaneity as the rules of taste 
and accuracy will permit. Certainly of all habits of 
speech and writing the use of stiff, awkward, half-erudite 
pretentious, elegant English is the most contemptible. 
Mistress Anne Bradstreet, a long- forgotten poet of early 
New England, wrote one line that teachers of children 
may well adopt as a motto in directing composition work : 

"From schoolboys' tongues no rhetoric we expect." 

Siiggestivencss 

Suggestiveness in language means picturesqueness ; it 
relates to the ability of language to flash illuminating 
pictures into the mind's eye. "Sprawl," for example, is, 
a more suggestive word than "lie"; "cur" is more ex- 
pressive than "dog"; because "sprawl" and "cur" are 
better picture-words. "The men went at it hammer and 



220 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

tongs" is a better sentence than "The men began to fight 
very fiercely,'' because the first sentence conveys a Hve- 
lier image. One must use discretion in this — that goes 
without saying; for it is easy to shp into habits of slang 
and coarseness. But words are much like men : it is the 
strenuous, warm-blooded, virile, masterful man that 
makes the deepest impressions upon his world; and it is 
the strong, highly-colored, suggestive word that stirs the 
mind of the reader or hearer into the greatest activity. 

Other Qualities of Good Language 

There are other qualities of good language besides the 
six just discussed. There is correctness, which demands 
that one say or write "He doesn't" instead of "He 
don't"; "I did" instead of "I done"; "The cow lay 
down" instead of "The cow laid down" ; "The river is 
rising" instead of "The river is raising," etc. There is 
proportion, a phase of emphasis, which requires us to 
develop essential ideas and subordinate non-essentials. 
There is propriety, which directs us to fit our language 
to our audience and our subject — for example, to use 
simple, concrete words when speaking to children or writ- 
ing on simple subjects. 

Hoii' to Teach Composition Work 

As succinctly as the necessity for clearness would per- 
mit, I have discussed the fundamental qualities of good 



COMPOSITION WORK 221 

language. That was a comparatively easy row to hoe, 
for it has been worked several times. But the next row 
is a good deal more difficult; it is, through neglect, over- 
grown with weeds and strewn with hard clods. I must 
now, in short, consider the question of how country teach- 
ers, many of them untrained in English, can so teach com- 
position work that the written and spoken language of 
their pupils will possess those basic qualities of good lan- 
guage. 

This difficult subject I shall try to make plain by an 
examination of the child's written language in the hope 
of discovering how the child's writing compares in qual- 
ity with what we call "good" language, and then I shall 
suggest some methods of improving the child's work in 
regard to these qualities. That is, we will see what is the 
nature of a young child's composition work, and then 
discuss means of improving it — just as a farmer, desiring 
to improve a certain field, first finds how much it is pro- 
ducing, and then proceeds, by cultivation an.d fertiliza- 
tion, to increase and improve the yield. 

A Child's Composition 

In examining and discussing the compositions that 
young children write, let us bear this fact in mind : com- 
posing is thinking, and thinking has to be learned. 
We shall expect children to fall far short of our ideal 
in writing, because, being immature, they are not able 



222 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

to think well. Keeping this in mind, let us examine 
closely and sympathetically the composition given below 
as a representative specimen. This is a "really-for-sure" 
composition, written by a third grade boy. I have cor- 
rected the spelling and punctuation, so that we can put 
our minds on the other characteristics of the work. 

MY DOG 

My dog's name is Jack. He is big and black and goes 
with me every place I go. I got Jack off of Bud Sim- 
mons. Bud had two dogs and he gave me one. I would 
sooner have my Jack than Bud's. My dog can lick Bud's 
dog. My dog has a white place on his side. My dog 
goes with me after the cows. One time he went after 
the cows. I was sick. I got a terrible cold going swim- 
ming too early in the spring. But it was a warm day. 
He went after the cows by himself. He is four years old 
and he can do lots of tricks. Jack can bring pieces of 
wood out of the water. But Jack shakes oft' on me, but I 
try to fight him away from me. He is as big as a little 
calf, about two months old, I guess. Sometimes Jack 
carries my dinner-bucket to school in his mouth. I like 
Jack. I do not like cats. 

Exain'uiation for Unity 

Now for our examination. Does this composition pos- 
sess unity? No; that is evident. The sentences have 



COMPOSITION WORK 223 

unity, but that is because they are short ; when the writer 
tries his hand at a compound one, he is Hkely to go astray 
— as he does in the second sentence. And as for unity 
in the whole composition, that is violated two or three 
times; once when the writer compares his dog with Bud's, 
once in telling of his sickness, again in the last sentence. 
All these offenses against the principle of unity are nat- 
ural. For example, when the young writer tells where 
he got his dog, his mind jumps to the reason Bud was 
willing to give him up, and then, naturally again, to a 
comparison of the two dogs. The second violation of 
unity is as easy to follow. The thought in the mind of 
the writer is that Jack goes with him everywhere, even 
after the cows. That reminds him that once Jack went 
by himself. This leads the boy to explain why he did 
not go himself. And then, perhaps with a remembrance 
of his defense to his parents, he mentions why he went 
swimming so early in the season. It is natural for an 
untrained mind to wander off the subject. One idea sug- 
gests another. The trained thinker scrutinizes the new 
ideas as they run into the consciousness; and if they do 
not bear directly on the main theme, he hustles them 
out and proceeds with his subject. But the child, or any 
individual untrained in thinking, does not possess this 
ability. Almost invariably he writes down whatever the 
laws of association drag into his mind, whether it injures 
the unity or not. 



224 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Examination for Coherence 

Does this composition have coherence? No, again. In 
the first place, the youthful author has jumbled his ideas; 
he has not arranged them in the logical order. For ex- 
ample, in the second sentence he informs us that Jack 
is big and black. Further on he says he has one white 
spot. Later he states that he is four years old; and still 
later that he is as big as a little calf. These details belong 
together, since they are all concerned with Jack's appear- 
ance ; but they are distributed throughout the story. This 
is true of other ideas in the composition. In the second 
place, the writer has employed no cohering words except 
"and" and "but" and the pronoun "he" — which latter 
may be styled a cohering word because it implies an ante- 
cedent in a preceding sentence. In general, the language 
of children and of uneducated persons lacks coherence, 
because they have not been trained to arrange the mate- 
rial that is brought into their minds. 

Examination for Emphasis 

In emphasis, also, the composition fails. The writer 
has not made any one idea stand out prominently, either 
the appearance of the dog, or his tricks and habits, or 
his devotion to his master. Some one fact should have 
been selected and "played up," as newspaper writers say ; 
while all other facts should have been subordinated or 
eliminated. Moreover, some of the sentences fail to 



COMPOSITION WORK 225 

bring out one main thought. The writer says : "Bud had 
two dogs and he gave me one," whereas he should have 
written, "Since Bud had two dogs, he gave me one," or 
"Bud had two dogs, so he gave me one," The word 
"and" is a poor word to show relationship between the 
phrases or clauses it connects, because it makes them of 
equal importance. Now, these violations of the laws of 
emphasis result from the writer's lack of power to think 
well. His mind has not been able to distinguish, among 
the details, the one important and significant fact. That 
is a simple case of inability to think clearly, an inability 
that characterizes all children. 

Examination for Qualities of Words 

As to the qualities of words, the composition ranks 
higher. The words are fairly accurate, quite natural, and 
tolerably suggestive. The child has not a large enough 
vocabulary, consequently overworks some words; and his 
expressions are occasionally rather awkward. But this is 
precisely what we should expect. The young author has 
fewer words because he has fewer ideas, and he is awk- 
ward in expressing himself because he has not had enough 
practice in written composition to give him ease. 

Suggestions for Teaching Written Composition 

Let me now, after this brief analysis of a child's typical 
composition, present some definite suggestion for leading 



236 KXGl-lSll IX nil- COIN TRY SCilOOl. 

the chiUl to oxpross hinisolt" in laiipiac'o that better con- 
forms to ihe chief principles of i^wxl wriiinj;-. 

T. \\'e noticed that the fauUs observed in the compo- 
sition above are natnral faults. That is. a child, from his 
very natnrt^ — his inexperience, his iniinatnrity. his weak- 
ness in thinkinii". in arrani^inj^". in \">lant\ing" — is prone to 
conunit many grie\ons blnnders. Hnt since these fanlts 
are the natnral faults of inunatnrity, the child is not in 
any sense to hlame for them. The tu-st sui^gestion. then, 
is to proceed slowly, patiently, enconrai^ingly. sympa- 
thetically, diplotnatically. '" There mnst be no hnrry. but 
there mnst be no halt." as someone has pithily said. The 
teacher who becontes fretful and impatient to see speedy 
improvement, the teacher who expects children to think 
and write like adults, the teacher who scolds and nags — 
that teacher is sure to tnake the writing- of compositions 
a bugbear to the children. Po not compare the children 
with sonte great author, or even with yourself: rather 
contpare the ch.ildren today with what they were last 
month, and if you see they are progressing, be content. 
Remember that thinking is perhaps the most dit^cnlt 
process man is called upon to perform, and mnst needs 
be learned slowly, very slowly. 

J. Tut heavier emphasis on the thought processes than 
on expression processes. In proportion as children learn 
to think connectedly, forcibly, and thoroughly i^ which 



COMI'OSITION WORK 227 

means "throiigliAy'^) they will express themselves eo- 
herently, cogently, and accurately ; and their writing;- will 
he vitalized hy those ((ualities which, we have seen, are 
fundamental in elTective language. 

3. Therefore he sure that a suhject has made a deep 
impression on the child hefore you ask him to express 
himself. Choose suhjects that will lie well within the 
interests and experiences of the child, suhjects that chal- 
lenge his genuine thought. Allow the older children to 
choose their own suhjects and suhmit them to y(ju. Any 
person writes better on a theme he has selected — provided, 
of course, it lies within his scope. The best way, per- 
haps, is for the teacher to select the general theme and 
for the older pupils to select the more definite suhject. 
IM1US, the teacher ;isks the children to write on the con- 
struction of some ])l[iy thing or some article. One boy 
will write on how to make a sled, another on how to 
mount a grindstone that it can be turned hy pedaling, 
another on how to construct a martin-box, while the girls 
will choose themes from their own interests and activi- 
ties. Ciivc the children all the liberty possible, but limit 
them to subjects within their powers. If left entirely to 
themselves, they will often select themes that far transcend 
their abilities. 

4. It is evident that you, teacher, must train the child 
to arrange his material, to connect the details with each 



228 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Other, and to emphasize the fundamental ideas. This 
you should do before the children begin to write. For 
example, you say to a class : "Now, we are going to 
write something about your pets at home. Each of vou 
write down all the things he can think of about his dog 
or cat." The children will jot down detached, unrelated 
sentences, with the facts mixed even worse than in the 
composition printed above. Then you must help each 
child organize this material. The pupil must see that 
all the sentences stating anything about the dog's or cat's 
appearance must be collected, that the sentences telling 
what the animal can ilo must be herded together, etc. 
Then you must assist the child in selecting one idea to 
make prominent, in scratching out ideas that he does not 
need or that are aside from the subject, in connecting his 
sentences by words and phrases. This is slow work and 
consumes much of the country teacher's precious time. 
But after some training of this sort, the child acquires 
power to think out a subject for himself. Children in the 
upper grades can be taught, and should be taught, to 
make simple outlines of their subject before they start to 
write. This keeps them from wandering, from iiying 
the track. 

Sometimes you can economize time by assigiiing 
one subject to the whole class. Let th.etn then make 
suggestions about the subject assigned, have these writ- 
ten on the board, and theti vou and tlie class arrange the 



COMPOSITION WORK 229 

material. I'lit c\on if you do the very liest you cau, you 
will discover tlial composition work takes a very _i;reat 
deal of time — that is certain. However, it is lime s[)ent 
in training your children to think, so it is time spent to 
the best possible atlvautage — and it brings the greatest 
possible results. 

5. ]t is obvious that the smaller the subject, the less 
will the child wander, ^'ou should, therefore, fence in 
the theme assigned — and a fence should be, I ha\'e heard, 
"horse-high, pig-low, and bull-strong." That is, ctniail 
the child's naturid desire to stray from the subject by 
closely limiting the theme. When he errs, bring him 

« back patiently and kindly, show him how he has failed, 
and start him again. Of course, you will keep expanding 
the scope of the subjects, as the child attains more thouglit 
power. 

6. Enlarge the child's vocabulary. You noticed in 
the comi)osition we examined how many times a few 
words are used. Sometimes emphasis or clearness is 
gained by repeating a word ; but usually, in the writing 
of children, nothing is gained and accuracy and variety 
are lost. In general, the more words a person has at his 
disposal, the more thoughts he has, for a word is the 
symbol of a thought. Show your pu])ils how to carry 
words over from their talk .and reading, especially the 
latter. Most persons know (that is, can recognize) three 



230 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

or four times as many words as they use in talking or 
writing; encourage your children to employ the desirable 
words they find in books — ^being careful, needless to say, 
not to permit them to make their writing too pretentious. 

7. You. observed that in our specimen composition the 
sentences are very short and grammatically simple. This 
is natural, for the child, being able to think only a simple 
thought at a time, uses short, jerky sentences. But as he 
grows older you should teach him to express his thoughts 
in longer, more complex sentences. Do this diplomatically 
— rather encourage vigorously than drive rigorously; but 
make sure that your pupils are able to see the superiority 
of a complex sentence to a simple one or a compound, in 
expressing most thoughts. 

Talking vs. Writing 

These are some of the most suggestive and fruitful 
rules that are derivable from an examination of the com- 
position, "My Dog." Now let us see if we cannot glean 
some hints from an examination of the way children talk. 
Mingle with your pupils on the playground and observe 
the nature of their talk. It is virile, suggestive, spon- 
taneous, natural. Bring those same boys and girls into 
the schoolroom and set them to work on a composition — 
what a difference ! Their writing is often restrained, life- 
less, awkward, self-conscious. Why the difference? For 



COMPOSITION WORK 231 

one thing, speech is a habit, writing is not. Speech there- 
fore is felt to be more natural — in truth, so natural that 
the children hardly think of what they say. Writing, on 
the other hand, is felt to be both more artificial and more 
difficult. There are more rules to be learned; they must 
write, spell, punctuate, paragraph, and think, all at the 
same time. Now, as a matter of fact, it is doubtful if 
writing is much more difficult than talking ; some students 
of the subject say the mechanical difficulties of speaking 
are greater than those of writing — in other words, it is 
harder to learn to use the tongue than to use the pen. 
Observe an infant learning to talk; see how he has to 
struggle to master the use of his tongue and how slowly 
he acquires command of his vocal organs. He does ac- 
quire the power, however. He does it for several rea- 
sons : because his parents train him consistently and per- 
sistently and patiently, because they furnish him models 
for imitation in their own speech, because his growing 
intellect demands a method of communicating his wants 
and emotions better than inarticulate cries and gestures, 
and because he keeps talking until he has formed the 
habit. With these obvious considerations in mind, let us 
formulate three more rules for teaching composition : 

Three More Suggestions 

8. Make writing a habit. Some people can think bet- 
ter when they have a pen in their hand; that is because 



232 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

they have acquired the habit of writing out their thoughts. 
Some people can think better when they are standing be- 
fore an audience; that is because they have acquired the 
habit of expressing their thoughts in that way. Of course, 
we may never succeed in getting all our pupils so accus- 
tomed to handling a pen that it will seem the natural way 
of expressing thought; perhaps we should not wish them 
to acquire such a fixed habit. But certainly children will 
write better — better in every respect — if they are so accus- 
tomed to writing that they will feel more or less at their 
ease. 

9. Following the hint given above, supply or inspire 
motives for writing, whenever possible. Further on in 
this chapter that point is developed. 

10. Try to retain all the naturalness and expressiveness 
of children's talk. It is a very difficult bit of teaching to 
try to preserve the excellent qualities while correcting and 
suggesting means for improvement. The teacher is ''be- 
tween the hawk and the buzzard" : if he corrects too much, 
he makes his pupils artificial and backward; if he fails 
to correct and suggest, he fails in his task of improving 
their language. It is a problem worthy any teacher's 
intellect, energy, and consecration. 

Let us now consider the more formal phases of compo- 
sition work. 



COMPOSITION WORK 233 

Four Kinds of Writing 

The four kinds of writing — or of talking — are Narra- 
tion, Description, Explanation or Exposition, and Argu- 
ment. These words are self-explanatory, so I need not 
discuss them further than to say that hardly any speci- 
men of writing is exclusively one kind. One rarely finds 
Narration unmixed with Description, or Argument free 
from Explanation; and one almost never reads s^mon- 
pure Description as a separate literary form. Instead, 
therefore, of entering into a useless discussion of the 
four forms of writing, I shall offer some general sug- 
gestions about the teaching of these forms in the country 
school. 

Narration 

Narration comes first — first in importance, first in re- 
gard to the amount of time to be devoted to it, and first 
in the order of time. For the lower grades Narration 
should be given more time and emphasis than all the 
other forms of writing combined, and throughout the 
grades it is the favorite type. It is best adapted to chil- 
dren, because its essence is action; children like action in 
what they read and what they write. 

Description 

Description should be mingled with Narration. They 
combine of their own accord, each being complementary 



234 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

to the o-ther. \Mien a pupil writes a story of his rahbit 
hunt on Thanksgiving day he naturally introduces bits of 
description — the kind of day, the weather, how he was 
dressed, the brier-tield he beat through, etc. Only occa- 
sionally should vou ask the child to produce pure Descrip- 
tion, but there should be a good deal of it in connection 
with other forms of writing. 

ExpJaJiafioji 

Simple Explanation should be begun in the lower 
grades. "How the Blackbird Builds Its Nest." "How to 
Make Butter." "How to Make a Pawpaw Whistle." are 
subjects hard enc>ugh for the youngsters to cut their teeth 
on. As they grow older, assign subjects which fit in with 
their wider experience and with their lessons in Geogra- 
phy, History. Agriculture, etc. An occasional examina- 
tion furnishes opportunity for Explanation or Exposi- 
tion. In general, this form of writing is excellent for 
dcNeloping and training power to think. 

ArgiDiioit 

Argument should be reserved for the last two or three 
grades. It can. perhaps, be carried on best orally, if you 
will organize a literary society. Civil Government sup- 
plies capital themes for argument or debate, but these 
are often too dit^cult. You had best choose simple 
subjects like: ''Should the Country School Have a Two 



COMPOSITION WORK 235 

Months' Summer Session?" "Does It Pay to Keep 
Sheep?" "Is Life on a Farm Preferable to Life in 
Town?" etc. 

"But," it may be said, ''what is the use of all this 
writing? We are preparing these boys and girls for life 
on a farm, and there they assuredly will not need to write 
much." That is very true. But, as was shown in the 
first part of this chapter, the WTiting of compositions 
trains in thinking and talking, and furnishes a natural 
outlet for the expressive instinct ; the children must have 
plenty of writing for these reasons. However, let us turn 
to a kind of writing that your children will — or should — 
have something to do with in after life: letter writing. 

Letters 

There are two kinds of letters : Business letters, and 
social or friendly letters; and the country child should 
be trained in both. The business letter should be neat 
and legible, brief and direct, precise and accurate in every 
detail from the address to the signature. You should 
know what are the correct forms in business letters : where 
to put the date and address, how to address a business 
firm, how and where to write the closing and the signa- 
ture, how to address the envelope; and you must train 
your pupils thoroughly in all this. The social letter should 
be longer and quite informal and familiar. It should 



236 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

resemble easy, chatty conversation, and should contain 
the personal and neighborhood news and gossip that the 
correspondent is likely to be interested in. We do not 
write enough letters to our friends and relatives; we do 
not keep in touch with them. Maybe a brother has moved 
west, and we have not heard from him in months or even 
years, merely because we are lazy or careless about writ- 
ing letters. That certainly is all wrong. Friends and 
kinfolk are possessions too precious to be given up so 
easily, especially when one lives on a lonely farm and is 
far away from those he cares for. If the country boy 
and girl were trained to write letters, they would not, 
when grown, be so reluctant to correspond with friends 
and family. Hands roughened and stiffened by hard, 
out-of-door work cannot wield a pen as well as a hoe; 
but if one kept in practice, his hands would be more 
flexible. Or, why not install a typewriter in the country 
home ? Social letters should usually be written with pen ; 
but, after all, it is the letter that counts, not the instru- 
ment by which it is written. The country school teacher 
should devote a great deal of time and attention to letter 
writing, and farmers and farmers' wives should join what 
Professor G. Walter Fiske prettily calls "The League of 
the Golden Pen." In these days of rural free delivery 
there is little reason for country folks being so chary of 
their letters. 



COMPOSITION WORK 237 

Motivation 

Now, of course, you must "motivate." That is an- 
other of the new-fashioned words in modern pedagogy. 
To motivate is to supply or inspire motives. As we all 
know, children will work with more vim and interest 
when they have some motive for work. The best way 
to motivate letter writing is to guide your children in a 
real correspondence. Have them write real letters to 
"sure-enough" children— their cousins or friends that 
have moved away. Help them write the letters and then 
read the answers with them. I knew of a country school 
where the teacher worked up a correspondence between 
her older pupils and some school children in a certain 
large city; that teacher had no trouble in training her 
little folks in letter writing. Why not try that? It is a 
good deal like cross-fertilization in its results. Some of 
these days each rural school will have its own stationery, 
with the postoffice and name of the school printed on the 
sheets; that will encourage letter writing. 

Another way in which you can motivate composition 
writing is by starting a literary society and putting your 
pupils on the program to read their best compositions. 
Perhaps you can make arrangements with one of your 
county newspapers to print a composition each week or 
each month. Some county papers do this, and perhaps 
others would if teachers asked them. And certainly 



238 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

almost every paper would be glad to have a weekly budget 
of news from your neighborhood; why not do this in 
your school? Your pupils can bring in the items and 
write them out; then you can all correct and arrange the 
material. Try this; you will find that the children will 
take great pride in writing, when they have something 
like this to inspire them. 

Perhaps y.ou can attract some few pupils by furnish- 
ing them., or pointing out to them, yet another motive — 
that of self -improvement. A good many teachers seldom 
try any other motive. Experience has shown, however, 
that most children are influenced very little b}^ any desire 
for improvement. They may deceive themselves into 
believing so and may take great credit to themselves for 
such a laudable mctive; but a child usually studies for 
one or more of three reasons: he is interested in th-^ 
work, he likes the teacher, or he fears the teacher. It is 
almost futile to try to inspire a child to work in order 
that he may be a great man some day. It is quite futile 
to try to inspire the ordinary child to write in order that 
he may be a great writer. The average young child 
rarely sees farther ahead than a few days ; he is not much 
interested, except in a vague way, in what he will become 
in twenty years. But occasionally a teacher can urge a 
particular child to practice writing by showing him how 
his work is improving and how practice in writing will 



COMPOSITION WORK 239 

be of assistance to him in after years. This will inspire 
the more serious children, perhaps, and it should be used 
to the limit of its influence. The wise teacher, the teacher 
who is acquainted with child nature, relies, however, upon 
more immediate motives — interest, first, always. 

Tlie Fornial Elements 

Let us now pass to another problem connected with 
composition work in the country school : the teaching" of 
w4iat are called the "formal elements." Most of the 
work involved in writing compositions is "content," not 
"formal" (you remember I discussed those terms a few 
pages back) ; most of it induces thinking about real things, 
■not symbols. But in order to write, everyone must learn 
certain "forms." The principal ones are spelling, capi- 
talization, punctuating and paragraphing. Needless to 
say, these must be taught. Now, the only way forms 
can be taught is by drilling. You can teach a thing by 
bringing it to the attention of the pupil in the right way ; 
if it is something real, especially something he wants, he 
reaches out and gets it. But all forms, all symbols, con- 
ventions, must be taught by incessant drill until habits 
are formed. When a child misspells a word in his com- 
position, correct it; if he misspells it again, correct it 
again. You may require him to keep a list of words 
misspelled or may resort to any device to improve his 



240 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Spelling; but you must just keep hammering away until 
he learns to spell. So of capitalization. Punctuating 
and paragraphing require more thinking; but here, also, 
the only way to train proper habits is to drill, drill, drill. 
It is easy enough, for example, to learn the rule : "A 
period must follow every declarative and imperative sen- 
tence" ; but the only way in which a child can be taught 
to recognize declarative and imperative sentences is to 
practice writing sentences under the direction of the 
teacher. It is easy enough to commit the rule : "Every 
paragraph must contain only one main thought" ; but the 
only satisfactory way in which the child can be taught 
what is "one main thought" is to practice writing under 
the direction of the teacher. The learning or the prac- 
tice of these forms is not usually thought-provoking; but 
they must be learned before the child can write anything 
— a letter or an examination. 

These formal elements must be mastered early, because 
they are elements; but they should be mastered in con- 
nection with the content, the thinking phases of the work. 
The chief emphasis should be laid on the thought-getting 
and the thought-expressing and the forms should be 
taught incidentally. Many a teacher fails to make com- 
position writing either interesting or profitable, because 
he over-emphasizes such formal details as spelling, punc- 
tuating, and the like. In composition work, as in religion, 
"The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." 



COMPOSITION WORK 241 

Sonic Definite Suggestions 

Now let me make some definite suggestions about the 
methods and devices for conducting composition work : 
first, in the lower grades, then in the upper, finally for the 
whole school. In doing this it will be necessary to repeat 
what has already been said, either directly or by implica- 
tion ; but I shall also be able to summarize the ideas scat- 
tered through this chapter, thus making the directions 
more compact and usable. 

For the Lower Grades 

1. The first compositions should consist of class exer- 
cises. You must not tell your children to write about 
something: you should take up some subject in class, 
get the pupils to talking about it, and then ask them to 
write. This "collective" work makes the writing seem 
more like a game, it makes the children feel that assur- 
ance which always accompanies "team work," it gives 
them a livelier idea of the close connection between talk- 
ing and writing, and it assists them in clarifying and 
unifying their thoughts. Of course, this method con- 
sumes time, but no other will properly initiate young- 
children into the mysteries of composition writing. 

2. Have the first composition written on the black- 
board. The first writing of young children should be 
large and it should be performed with the whole arm 



242 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

movement. Soft crayon on slate boards are the best 
media; and you should pursue your trustees or board of 
education till you have obtained what you need in these 
respects. You may expect the penmanship of your little 
tots to be irregular, unfixed, and straggling, and you must 
not insist upon as much correctness and consistency and 
regularity in the compositions as you may require in the 
regular exercises in vi^riting. Young children can think 
of only one thing at a time; if you force them to pay 
too much attention to their chirography, they will give 
less to the thought they are expressing. Moreover, it has 
been demonstrated by experiment and experience that 
children become more skillful penmen if they are not 
compelled, while young, to conform too slavishly to a 
model. Do not attempt, then to proceed very rapidly in 
this respect; as soon as the children have gained power 
over their muscles, they can be required to adhere more 
closely to a copy-book example. 

3. The time spent in these grades is pre-eminently the 
period for oral composition. Since children have already 
learned to express themselves in talk, they use speech 
freely and naturally; but the new and difficult art of 
writing must needs be patiently and laboriously learned. 
Here again we can apply that significant pedagogic princi- 
ple : From the known to the related unknown. Lead 
your children from talking to writing. Base all the writ- 



COMPOSITION WORK 243 

ten compositions in the early grades on talk. Prepare by 
oral class work both the subject-matter and the expres- 
sion. 

4. A good deal of the work in the primary grades 
should be some form of reproduction, retelling — either 
paraphrasing (couching the ideas read or spoken by the 
teacher in other words), expanding (enlarging on the 
th(3ught), or condensing (abridging or shortening the 
original). This is excellent work for little folks, because 
since they are given the thought and, to some extent, the 
expression, they can concentrate on the mere retelling 
and on the formal details of writing. 

This fact makes it almost obligatory on the teacher to 
tell stories. And here is a grave weakness in the teaching 
of the mother tongue by country teachers : they do not tell 
stories. Two excuses are offered : inability, and lack of 
time. As to the first, we may as well concede that story- 
telling is not an easy art — there is no use in blinking the 
fact. But any country teacher can learn to tell stories if 
he goes at it hard and practices patiently and systemat- 
ically, conquering that self -consciousness which is the 
bane of so many teachers — country teachers, especially — 
and observing the results of his own work by its effect 
upon the pupils. As to the second excuse, lack of time : 
I am willing to grant that the rural teacher has to be very 
economical of the minutes. But, as we all know, we 



244 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

sometimes save time in the long run by using a little 
more time at the right time. It takes longer to plow a 
field well and plant corn carefully, but we do not need to 
do so much hoeing, we cut a more abundant harvest, and 
we leave the field in better condition for the next season. 
And that comparison is apt, for story-telling in the lower 
grades is analogous to plowing a field and planting the 
grain — and surely you must make time for that. Per- 
haps you have some older boys and girls in your school 
who can be induced to take up this work, especially if 
they are preparing themselves to teach; that will help 
you. But at least you can read simple stories ; and 
after you have done this for some time, probably you 
will feel enough confidence in yourself to cut loose en- 
tirely from the book. 

5. In general, all the written compositions in these 
grades should be quite short — not more than a few sen- 
tences in the latter part of the first grade and not more 
than one or two brief paragraphs in the second and third. 
The ideal is : a little writing almost every day, and not 
very much any day. 

6. Begin early to train your children in these phases 
of composition work that relate to thinking. Of course, 
the mechanics of writing — punctuation, capitalization, 
and the like — must be learned; but they should be at- 
tached to the thought process — should cling to it, so to 



COMPOSITION WORK 245 

Speak, as a wild grape vine twines around an oak. Begin 
early to train your pupils to organize their material, to 
reject ideas which they do not need, to choose accurate, 
suggestive words; and train incidentally (though con- 
sistently and conscientiously) in the formal elements. 

7. Have the writing in these grades done at the school- 
house — usually, at least. Then you can encourage and 
suggest while the child is in the throes of composition 
writing — which assuredly is much wiser than waiting un- 
til the child has finished the work and then correcting it. 
In composition teaching, as in mending, "A stitch in time 
saves nine." 

In the Upper Grades 

I. Compositions should now be written first with 
pencil, then revised and copied with pen and ink. Train 
your elder pupils to be neat : to make no blots on their 
paper, to leave a generous margin at the left of the page, 
to write plainly, legibly and rapidly — eschewing the flour- 
ishes and curlicues that so often disfigure the handwrit- 
ing of country boys and girls, and the "Business College" 
graduate. 

2. Require longer, more complex compositions. Have 
at least one long composition a week — by "long" I mean 
extending over a page or two of the larger size tablet. 
You should also require outlines. For example : On 
Tuesday assign the subject and talk it over with your 



246 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

class. On Wednesday have the pupils hand in their out- 
lines. That evening at your home look these over and 
make corrections and suggestions. Then on Thursday 
give them back, and have them write their compositions, 
either at school or at home, for Friday, using the amended 
outlines. Just a word of caution : while these outlines, 
or plans, should be definite, they should not be too com- 
plex. If, for instance, your children are narrating a 
rabbit hunt, they should prepare an outline something 
like this : 

.1. Preparation and Start. 

a. Time of starting. 

b. The weather. 

c. Guns, dogs, etc. 

2. The Hunt. 

a. ^^l^ere we hunted. 

b. How we hunted. 

c. \Miat we bagged. 

3. Special Incident. (This should be stated definitely.) 

4. Return Home. 

In this outline the main headings represent the separate 
paragraphs. As you can see, this making of outlines is 
conducive to straight, connected thinking and is almost 
indispensable to unity of thought. 

3. It is a good plan to have the compositions written, 



COMPOSITION WORK 247 

after revision, in a permanent composition book. This 
will enable you and your children to keep close watch on 
the work and will serA'e as an excellent record for your 
suggestions and corrections. 

4. In addition to the weekly "set" compositions, your 
pupils should do a little original composing almost 
every day, in connection with the regular work of the 
school. These compositions should not be so carefully 
done or so elaborate as the regular ones, and they need 
not be looked over by you so closely — though they should 
not be overlooked. In general, your aim should be to 
give your pupils sufficient writing to make writing a 
habit, without assigning so much that the work becomes 
burdensome. 

5. Occasionally have your pupils correct and criticise 
each other's compositions. This will save you work and 
train the children in critical habits. When you have 
trained a child so that he can correct his own work, you 
have set his feet on the path to progressive achievement, 
either in writing or in farming ; and the best way to teach 
him to criticise himself is to set him to work criticising 
others. Of course, you must be discreet, adroit, tactful, 
and insist that this work be done in the right spirit — the 
spirit of fairness and mutual helpfulness. Your older 
pupils can also be led to help the younger ones — thus per- 
forming a triple service ; to you, to themselves, and to the 



248 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

little folks. Besides, criticism from a fellow pupil often 
sinks deeper into the mind of a child than correction from 
the teacher does. Many teachers of English have dis- 
covered that they can arouse more interest and a livelier 
discussion by letting their students criticise each other's 
themes than by criticising them themselves. A pupil will 
usually accept the teacher's remarks without much thought 
or any kind of mental reaction. But let a fellow-pupil 
make a correction that does not appeal to the writer as 
sound, and inevitably a discussion is started, which leaves 
both pupils better informed on that particular point. Once 
you inspire your children with this spirit of co-operation 
in learning to write, you have gone far toward a solution 
of one of the baffling problems in rural pedagogy. 

6. Put before your boys and girls good models of 
writing. In the reading and literature and language les- 
sons, call attention to those qualities of thinking and 
expression that are admirable, and persuade your children 
to imitate — not slavishly, but intelligently, and always 
on subjects upon which they have something of their own 
to say. But remember that the language of the average 
school composition should more closely resemble good 
spoken language than it should great literature. 

In Both Lower and Upper Grades 

1. Motivate as much as possible. 

2. Assign definite, interesting subjects. 



COMPOSITION WORK 249 

3. Criticise sympathetically and constructively. 

4. Correlate composition work with all the activities 
and studies of the school. 

5. Keep attention focused on the thinking processes. 

6. Emphasize letter-writing and other practical va- 
rieties of composing. 

Conclusion 

Country teachers labor under many disadvantages in 
teaching children to write — disadvantages so evident that 
they need not be here enumerated. But the same circum- 
stances that limit the country teacher furnish him oppor- 
tunities that do not come to the city teacher. The chil- 
dren in the rural school spend more time at their seats 
and less in the recitation than the children in city schools ; 
improve this time by giving plenty of educative seat-work 
— especially composition writing. Use the time gained in 
having the children during the noon recess. Take advan- 
tage of the fact that you have large children to help the 
small and that you have the close community life so 
favorable to co-operative effort and improvement. 

The Query Box 

I. Is the composition, "My Dog," as good zvork as zve 
can expect from country children in the third grade? 

It is, I believe, superior to most compositions of third 
grade children. I have quite a large collection of children's 
compositions, and I regard this as the best of rhe lot, for this 



250 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

grade — that is, the best of original compositions. Some 
children will do better work than this from dictation or in 
retelling a story ; but few will do as well when they furnish 
both the material, the arrangement, and the language. (If 
you will send to the Board of Education of the Indianapolis 
Public Schools for their pamphlet entitled "Illustrative Com- 
positions and Letters," you will receive an excellent list of 
pupils' compositions, through all the grades. Examination 
of these will confirm my statement that the composition on 
"My Dog" is entitled to a high mark.) If your pupils in 
the third, or even the fourth, grade write as well as this boy, 
you may be sure they are writing as well as they can be 
expected to. 

■ 2. Would you encourQge country children to wtite poetry? 

Yes, if the children themselves show some interest in the 
matter. But never force a child to write poetry ; do not take 
up the valuable time of the school in verse-making. 

3. How do yon organbe and conduct a literary society? 

Send out word through your pupils and carry the word as 
you pay your visits to the patrons, that you will have a 
meeting at the schoolhouse on a certain evening. Talk the 
matter over in school and get the children interested. Then, 
on the evening appointed, give a brief talk, setting forth the 
purposes of the contemplated organization, have the officers 
elected (perhaps you had best serve as president for the first 
few weeks), and a program committee appointed. Then 
have this committee make out a program for the next meet- 
ing. You need no constitution or by-laws, no elaborate 
machinery, though you should be acquainted with the con- 
ventional procedure and should teach the customary regu- 
lations, as occasion arises. Try to have all the up-to-date 
young men and women in the community present at the first 



COMPOSITION WORK 251 

meeting and elect some of them as officers. If your com- 
munity is small, perhaps your school can combine with the 
nearest one, and hold the meetings alternately, first at your 
schoolhouse, then at the other. Interest the school officers, 
by all means, and persuade them to attend the meetings. 
Hold the meetings every week or every two weeks, perhaps 
on Friday night. 

The program should consist of singing and some instru- 
mental music, if possible; of some recitations, usually of 
selections studied in class; of a debate, on some subject 
closely connected with country life; of compositions written 
in school — stories, descriptions, expositions ; of dramatiza- 
tions of stories that have been worked out previously ; and 
of anything else of a literary flavor. Try to have something 
that is interesting to all your pupils and entertaining to all 
the visitors. ]\Iake everything as informal as possible and 
have as much fun as is consistent with good, solid work. 
During the regular work of the week, keep alluding to the 
society, and fit in your English as closely with the societv 
work as seems advisable. Keep yourself as much in the 
background as you can, but see to it that everything moves 
smoothly along. 

4. What is an oral composition F 

In one sense of the word, an oral composition is any oral 
recitation. When you call upon a pupil to recite in history, 
you are asking him to do oral composing. But this is often 
no more than reproducing ideas the pupil has obtained 
directly from the text. The term "Oral Composition" is 
applied more accurately to an oral report on some sub- 
ject especially assigned to be thought over, outlined, and 
composed, more or less definitely. It is a composition, dif- 
fering from a written composition in being speech instead 
of writing. It should be carefully prepared for presentation, 



252 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

and should be judged and criticized by the teacher and pupils 
very much as a written composition is — though, of course, 
it should be remembered that when one is speaking he cannot 
be always deliberate, so is likely to make more mistakes than 
when he writes. Oral composing is growing more and more 
into favor. It has several advantages over written com- 
posing : it does not require so much work on the part of the 
pupils and the teacher, it trains more definitely in speaking, 
it is often more interesting as a class exercise. It is espe- 
cially valuable in the lower grades, since here the difficulties 
of writing interfere with the child's thinking and expressive 
activities. 

Of course, the country teacher will not be able to have his 
pupils do as much oral composing as the city teacher can, 
because he cannot spare as much time for this work. He 
should, however, have a good deal of this form of composing 
done in the primary grades and as much in the upper grades 
as proper apportionment of time will sanction. 



CHAPTER NINE 

MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 

The successful country teacher must be a hard student. 
Under present conditions comparatively few country 
teachers are able to obtain much secondary education or 
Normal training. The salary is so low that when a coun- 
try teacher, by diligence, ambition and sacrifice, secures 
a higher education, he either leaves the profession or 
accepts a more lucrative position in a city system. The 
time is coming when we will do better by rural teachers 
in the way of salary, thereby preserving in rural educa- 
tional work the very best of country teachers. Until 
that time comes, the country teacher must be a hard 
student. He must compensate for his lack of education 
by self-education. What he cannot obtain directly from 
a teacher in a Normal school or college, he must glean 
from books; what he lacks in training he must balance 
by the closest observation of his own work. Of course, 
no professional man or woman can succeed without dili- 
gent study; but the country teacher must be the most 
diligent of the diligent. 

Self-education is a difficult process. "The highest of 
all possessions," says Carlyle, "is that of self-help." To 

253 



254 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

be sure, one can go far by self -propulsion, in the direc- 
tion to which his nature and interests inspire. _ If one is 
talented in mathematics, he can plod on through a heavy, 
rough road; if one is interested in history, he can read 
and study out his own education — though, of course, not 
so well or so rapidly as if he has a teacher to guide him. 
But self-education in English is unusually difficult. It is 
such a broad subject, with so many phases and problems; 
it depends so much upon personal contact with a teacher; 
it involves so much training, which, by the way, almost 
demands an instructor, it is so difficult to learn and so 
difficult to teach — that self -education in English requires 
a rare patience, an indomitable perseverance, an unquench- 
able ambition. 

That teacher, then, who shirks difficulties, whose low, 
ambitionless spirit takes instinctively the path of least 
resistance, will never succeed in molding himself into the 
full stature of a teacher. He who wishes an easy task 
must seek some other profession than that of teaching in 
a country school. Days and nights, weeks and months 
and years, of earnest, unremitting labor — that is the price 
the country teacher must pay for self-education. But, 
as it is a difficult work, it is a noble work — a work that 
will bring out all one's intellectual and moral qualities 
and strengthen all one's personality. For weaklings it 
is an impossible task; for strong men and women it is 
a glorious struggle. 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 255 

Suggestions for Self-Education 

The country teacher can educate himself. To present 
some definite suggestions and to mention some valuable 
aids in the way of books is the purpose of this chapter. 
What can that country teacher do who has no chance to 
secure an education, yet wishes to continue in the profes- 
sion and to improve from year to year — not only in the 
English branches, but in all departments of his work? 

I. He can obtain the utmost possible benefit from 
the county and district teachers' institutes. In many 
States the teacher is compelled to attend the county insti- 
tutes and is paid for his attendance. But the law compels 
no more than physical attendance; it cannot enforce 
intellectual attendance. To many teachers the institute 
brings no permanent benefit. They are indifferent, idle, 
listless : having eyes, they see not ; having ears, they hear 
not. The earnest teacher, the conscientious teacher, the 
teacher who is ambitious to improve, finds the institute a 
store-house of intellectual and professional food — yet 
hardly bread prepared for the eating; rather the place 
where seeds may be obtained, to be afterwards tested, 
planted, and cultivated, to the end that they may bring 
forth more abundant food. The institute is a serviceable 
institution, if only teachers would avail themselves of its 
services. To attend every session and attend to every- 
thing that is said and done, to take a modest part in dis- 



256 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

cussions, to keep a note-book of hints, suggestions, ad- 
dresses, methods, to be wide-awake, intellectually curious 
— that should be the animating desire of every teacher. 
And the good teacher attends the district institute, 
whether required to do so or not; he is present at the 
round-tables and teachers' conventions in his community 
— from each of which he carries away inspiration and 
helpful ideas. The country teacher, therefore, engaged 
upon the arduous and honorable task of educating him- 
self must avail himself of the opportunities afforded by 
institutes and professional meetings. 

2. He can make the best possible use of the county 
superintendent, and the district superintendent, if there 
be one. He can correspond with them about his prob- 
lems; he can advise with them concerning methods. He 
can save up certain problems against the superintendent's 
coming and can make out of his visits an "institute of 
two." He can write to him about ways and means of 
getting money for a library and can secure a list of good 
books to purchase with the money obtained. He can 
have him talk to obdurate school officers and inspire lag- 
ging pupils. The county and district superintendents are 
not perfect individuals, of course; but the country teacher 
can make much better use of them than he often does. 

3. He can take and read some good educational peri- 
odicals. These should include the State teachers' jour- 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 257 

nals, and some good rural teachers' paper. Of. course, 
this takes some money ; but even the country teacher, with 
his meager salary, should be willing to expend a few dol- 
lars a year for the purpose of keeping abreast of the 
times and of securing valuable hints and suggestions for 
teaching. 

4. He can keep a close watch over his own teaching 
for the purpose of discovering his mistakes and improv- 
ing his methods. Some very successful teachers keep a 
diary note-book, in which, at the end of the day, they jot 
down everything of significance: how the children liked 
a certain poem, what interested them most in a history 
lesson, how the presentation of a subject in Agriculture 
could have been improved, why the children were restless 
at a certain time in the day, how a certain boy was dealt 
with for a particular misdemeanor and the results of his 
punishment, etc. Scarcely any practice is so valuable as 
that of observing closely the effects of one's own work; 
and the practice of recording these observations in a note- 
book increases the value of the observations — in that it 
tends to harden the useful custom into a habit, makes 
the observations and conclusions more definite by expres- 
sion, and, in the process of time, compiles a valuable 
permanent reference book. In addition to this diary, some 
teachers keep a scrap-book, composed of clippings from 
school journals and of stray sentences and anecdotes 



258 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

found in reading. Tliis scrap-book, if the clippings and 
notes are classified and inserted according to subject- 
matter — Literature in one part of the book, Composition 
work in another, anecdotes about children in another, and 
so on — becomes a useful book. If you have never tried 
keeping a book of this sort, you will be surprised at the 
pleasure you get out of the practice and at the mass of 
useful inforraation you will accumulate. 

5. He can obtain the utmost benefit possible from 
his State manual. Nearly every State, certainly every 
progressive State, has compiled a manual of instructions 
for the guidance of the country teachers. A copy of this 
book should be on every teacher's desk and the principles 
and directions should be in every teacher's mind. Usually 
this manual gives explicit directions about the teaching of 
all the subjects in the curriculum, about the amount of 
work to be completed in one month and in one term, 
about the grading of pupils, and about the dozens of 
other important details connected with the work of con- 
ducting a country school. No rural teacher can afford to 
ignore his State manual. A careful study of it and an 
intelligent obedience to its directions is one way in which 
the teacher can acquire self-education. 

6. These are but a few of the ways in which the coun- 
try teacher who is really anxious to improve his teaching 
can improve. But the most helpful way is yet to be men- 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 259 

tioned : I refer to the practice of reading. Of course, the 
teacher should affiUate with a reading circle; if one does 
not exist in his neighborhood, he should organize one. 
Get six or eight of the progressive young teachers and 
older pupils who expect to be teachers to join with you, 
select some good book on the teaching of English or some 
important and difficult subject, and meet once a week 
for discussion of the chapters. The interchange of ideas 
is helpful and the social intercourse is both helpful and 
pleasant. But, when all is said in behalf of the reading 
circle, it is less beneficial than the practice of reading 
alone; that, to my mind, is the very best way in which 
the country teacher can educate himself. 

What the Teacher Should Read 

What should he read? As I have already pointed out 
in a previous chapter (See pages 156-7), he should read 
the children's classics in the school library; he needs to 
know them for his own sake and for the purpose of inspir- 
ing his pupils to read them. But, of course, most of his 
reading should be in the "gfown-up" literature: fiction, 
essays, drama, poetry. This should be read for the delight 
in the reading ; but the teacher, being a mature person and, 
presumably, eager to attain culture and wisdom, should 
voluntarily subject himself to a course of reading that re- 
quires concentration and will-power. That is, the teacher 
should realize that in order to develop to his greatest 



260 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

capacity, he must put himself under the tuition of the 
greatest Hterature. If it is not entirely a matter of pleas- 
ure for the time being, he must persevere, in the knowl- 
edge that in the end he will find more genuine enjoy- 
ment than if he follows the path of least resistance in his 
reading. I have known good country teachers who were 
not steady readers; but I have never known one who 
would not have enhanced his abilities by undertaking and 
pursuing a course in choice literature. In these days of 
inexpensive books, there is not a shadow of excuse for the 
teacher who is ignorant of English and American litera- 
ture. If you, teacher, are not acquainted with the inspir- 
ing works of the great masters of poetry and prose, you 
have not availed yourself of the best of all opportunities 
of educating yourself. He who knows and loves a half 
dozen supreme authors has more true education than 
many a college graduate. 

Now, as I have constantly and consistently maintained, 
the most perfect joys of reading come to him who reads 
for pleasure. This does not mean, however, as I showed 
in the last paragraph, that a teacher should not read what 
may be difficult for the moment for the sake of the greater 
pleasure to follow. Nor does it mean that a teacher 
should not select his reading from that literature which 
will best fit in with his profession. We should read for 
pleasure; but in the process of obtaining pleasure, we 
may, incidentally, pick up many a hint that will be immed- 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 261 

lately serviceable to us in our teaching. For example, 
since Nature Study is so important in the country school 
and since Nature herself should be a passion with coun- 
try people, it is well for the country teacher to read the 
great nature poets — Wordsworth, Cowper, Burns, Bryant. 
And since every teacher needs to know children thor- 
oughly, he may well familiarize himself with that litera- 
ture that deals with children — not literature for children, 
but about children; and he should be a willing reader of 
all that literatiire which is based on school life. A 
rural teacher once said that Dickens' "Oliver Twist" 
had given him more inspiration to be a good teacher than 
had all the books of Pedagogy he had ever read. 
"Inspired" is the word he used ; and it is the exact word. 
Most of the books on professional subjects do not inspire, 
do not breathe into us the breath of life, the spirit; any 
literature worthy the name does inspire. Personally, I 
have attained to a more thorough understanding of child 
nature from two or three novels than from the many 
volumes on Child Study through which I have toiled. Do 
you want to know children? Study them in real life, 
study them in the text-books, but above all, study them 
in the literature in which they are found. A great author 
has often a thousandfold more understanding of the 
heart of a child than we have, or than scientists have. 
Read "The Mill on the Floss," read Meredith's "The 
Ordeal of Richard Feverel," read Barrie's "Sentimental 



262 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Tommy," Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer," and books of 
this sort ; and you will imderstand children as you never 
have before. 

A teacher should read much more literature than he 
does pedag'ogy. But he should read many books on peda- 
g-ogy, too. I am not here concerned with the general 
subject of professional reading; my only concern is 
English in the Country School. What books should the 
country teacher read on English? 

Before I give a list of books on the teaching of Eng- 
lish, let me recommend a brief list on country life in 
general and the country school in particular. ]\Iany coun- 
try teachers need to be better informed on the social, 
economic, and educational possibilities of the rural school ; 
manv do not have their eyes open to the splendid vision 
of their possible service to the community. No one can 
be a sfood teacher of Eno-lish in the country school who 
is not inspired by an ideal of a highly efficient nu-al 
school, who does not comprehend the work he is called 
upon to perform, in all the branches in the curriculum, 
in all the activities of the school. Here, then, is a list of 
excellent books for the country teacher. I have marked 
with a star those volumes that are most valuable. Get 
some of them, and see Jiow your ideas expand. 

Books axd Pamphlets on Country Life 

*L. H. Bailey, Country Life Movement, jMacmillan Co., 
New York, $1.25. 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 263 

*L. H. Bailey, Training of Farmers, Century Co., New 
York, $1.25. 
K. L. Butterfield, Chapters in Rural Progress, University 

of Chicago Press, $1. 
*G. Walter Fiske, Challenge of the Country, Association 
Press, New York. $0.50. 
Geo. E. Johnson, The Country Boy, Massachusetts Civic 
League, 3 Joy St., Boston, $0.03. 
*Horace Plunkett, Rural Life Problems in the United 

States, Macmillan Co., New York, $1.25. 
*W. A. IMcKeever, Farm Boys and Girls, Macmillan Co., 

New York, $1.50. 
*Free Bulletins, United States Bureau of Education, 
Washington, D. C. : 
No. 469 — Course of Study for Preparation of Rural 

School Teachers. 
No. 480 — Country School for City Boys. 
No. 493 — Comparison of Urban and Rural Common 
School Statistics. 
*Report of the Commission on Country Life, Government 
Printing Office, Washington, D. C, $0.10. 
Books on the Country School 
*Mabel Carney, Country Life and the Country School, 
Row, Peterson & Co., Chicago, 111., $1.25. 
Harold W. Foght. American Rural School, Macmillan 

Co., New York, $1.25. 
O. J. Kern, Among Country Schools, Ginn & Co., New 
York, $1.25. 
*Angelina Wray, Jean Mitchell's School, Public School 
Pub. Co., Bloomington, III, $1. 

Now for the books on the Teaching of English. You 
will understand that none of the volumes listed here were 
written especially for country schools or country teachers. 



264 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

But inasmuch as so many of the problems in the city 
schools and in the rural schools are identical, and inasmuch 
as all the details of English teaching are so difficult and 
important, every progressive rural teacher should possess 
and study some of these books on English. I have sepa- 
rated them into the various branches and have marked the 
most helpful with a star. The first three deal with 

English — In General 

*Carpenter, Baker & Scott, Teaching of English, Long- 
mans, Green & Co., New York, $1.50. 
Percival Chubb, Teaching of English (Elementary School 
Course), Macmillan Co., New York, $0.75. 
* James F. Hosic, Elementary Course in English, University 
- of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111., $0.75. 
These are excellent books, dealing with all phases of 
English teaching. 

As the subject of Reading, especially primary Reading, 
is so very difficult, I have made out a list of several books 
that deal with various phases of the work. Some of these 
presuppose a considerable amount of information on the 
part of the teacher ; but all can be understood with close 
study. None of the books here mentioned treat the Alpha- 
bet method — in fact, all students of the subject agree that 
it is far inferior to the modern methods. The country 
teacher needs several good books on Reading. Select one 
or two of those listed below and purchase them now ; then 
get one or two more next year. 

Books on Reading 

*Arnold, Reading and How to Teach It, Silver, Burdett & 

Co., New York, $1.00. 
*Briggs and Coffman, Reading in the Public Schools, Row, 

Peterson & Co., Chicago, 111., $1.25. 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 265 

*Farnham, Sentence ^Method of Reading, C. W. Bardeen, 

Syracuse, N. Y., $0.50. 
Huey, The Psycholog}- and Pedagogy of Reading, Alac- 

millan Co., New York. $1.40. 
Hughes, Teaching to Read, A. S. Barnes Co., New York, 

$0.50. 
Laing. Reading, A Manual for Teachers, D. C. Heath, 

Boston. 
*McMurry. Special Method in Primary Reading, D. C. 
Heath, Boston, $0.75. 

Most of the books mentioned above discuss Literature 
as well as Reading. ]\Iost of them discuss both oral and 
silent reading. From the adult point of view, I especially 
recommend for 

Oral Re.\ding 

*Clark, How to Teach Reading in the Public School, Scott, 
Foresman & Co., New York, $1. 
But, as I have explained in this book (See pages 44-8), the 
teaching of Literature and of Reading are not identical. 
The teacher needs some books to guide him in teaching 
literature — in some respects the most important of all the 
subjects in the country school curriculum. I give, there- 
fore, a list of volumes that deal especially with this subject, 
marking with a star the best ones for the rural teacher. 

Books on Literature 

*Cax, Literature in the Common Schools, Little, Brown & 

Co., Boston, $0.90. 
*MacClintock, Literature in the Elementary Schools, Uni- 

v^ersity of Chicago Press, Chicago, $1. 
McMurry. Special Method in Reading of English Classics, 

jMacmillan Co., New York, $0.75. 



266 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

The books just mentioned discuss the general process of 
teaching Literature. Some other books that shouki be in 
the country teacher's hbrary are those that present definite 
models of teaching — books that show how to teach specific 
selections. Some of the following volumes contain many 
of the selections that are sure to be in the adopted school 
readers; if the teacher, therefore, has these books, he will 
be greatly aided in presenting these selections. In case a 
poem or a prose masterpiece is not found in the school 
readers, the teacher can often put the selection on the board 
or have the children buy it in a cheap edition. Even if the 
teacher makes no direct use of the selection, he obtains 
valuable suggestions that will assist him in interpreting 
literature and in teaching the subject. Five of the best 
books that contain nothing but good selections, together 
with directions for teaching and explanations. I mention 
below. The last two could well be put into the hands of 
the pupils as supplementary readers. 

Books Containing Selections and Suggestions for 
Teaching 

*Barbe, Famous Poems Explained, Hinds, Noble and Eld- 
redge. New York, $i. 

*Haliburton and Smith. Teaching Poetry in the Grades, 
Houghton, IMifflin Co., Boston, $0.60. 

*Searson and Martin, Studies in Reading, University Pub- 
lishing Co., Chicago. $0.80. 

*Searson and Martin. Studies in Reading (Fourth Reader), 
University Publishing Co.. $0.65. 

*Searson and Martin. Studies in Reading (Fifth Reader), 
University Publishing Co., $0.75. 

Perhaps you think I have already given a long enough list 
of books on Literature. But there is yet another class of 
books that the countrv teacher needs : books that deal with 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 267 

the proper selection of juvenile books and with the develop- 
ment of the reading habit. Most of the general books on 
English, the books on Reading, and those on Literature 
discuss this subject. I think it is evident, though, that, 
since the development of correct reading habits is so impor- 
tant to country children, the country teacher should study a 
book or two dealing with the specific problems in the forma- 
tion of such habits. I shall mention only three books ; if 
the teacher knows these, he can be reasonably sure of 
keeping on the right track. 

Books on Selection of Books and the Development 
OF the Reading Habit 

Colby, Literature and Life in the School, Houghton. Mif- 
flin Co., $1.25. 

Field, Finger Posts to Children's Reading, A. C. McClurg, 
Chicago, $1. 

Welsh. Right Reading for Children. D. C. Heath & Co., 
Boston, Free. 

These three books will give you a pretty good idea of 
the class of books to select for the school library. But 
they do not give lists of the books themselves. As I have 
said (See page 144), if you do not feel qualified to select 
the volumes for the children's library, it is a good plan 
to consult your district or county superintendent, or to 
write to the state superintendent. But it is well for the 
teacher to have on hand a number of bibliographies of 
.<:hildren's books, especially as some of the very best cost 
nothing but the postal card that you use to ask for them. 
Some of these bibliographies print short descriptions of 
the books they mention ; these are especially helpful. Of 
course, most of these lists were not compiled for country 
school libraries, but they are useful nevertheless. They 



26S ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

usually give publishers, prices, the grade that each book is 
suited for, and other useful information. 

Bibliographies of Children's Books 
Write to any of the following: 

Public Libraries of the following cities for all their free 
leaflets and lists : New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, 
Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago. 

]\Iiss Nan JNIildren. care Ladies' Home Journal. Philadel- 
phia, for her lists of books, especially the list for country 
children. (Enclose self-addressed stamped envelope.) 

Department of Public Instruction, Lansing. ^lich., for the 
List of ChUdroi's Books for the ScJiool Libraries of 
Michigan. 

Department of Public Instruction. Springfield. 111., for The 
Use of the School Library in tJic Homes a)id ScJiooIs of 
Illi)iois. 

Department of Public Instruction. Des ^loines, Iowa, for 
the Catalog of Library Books for the ScJiool Districts of 
lozi'a. (The best list for country teachers that I know.) 

Department of Schools. Charleston. W. Va., for Library 
Day — Program and Suggestions, for 1911. 

American Library Association Publishing Board, Chicago, 
111., for 550 Chihiren's Books. 

Penn Publishing Co.. Philadelphia, for their pamphlet, 
.htz'fViile Readers as a)i Asset. 

jMassachusetts Civic League. 3 Joy Street, Boston. Mass.. 
for their pamphlet. A Ullage Library. It shows what 
can be done in a country community with a good library. 
(Price 5 cents.) 

Democrat Publishing Co.. ^Madison, Wis., Suggestive List 
of Children's Books for a Small Library. (Price 25 
cents.) 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION . 269 

Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, for 
their Bibliography of Children's Reading, originally 
issued as numbers of the Teachers. College Record. 
(Price 60 cents.) 

A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 0)w Thousand Books for 
Children, by Coussens. (Price $1.00.) 

A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, A Mother's List of Books 
for Children, by Arnold. (Price $1.00.) 

In case you want the children to get some cheap supple- 
mentary reading, you will find good material in the publi- 
cations of the firms listed below. Perhaps you want to 
teach Hawthorne's "The Great Stone Face," or Whittier's 
"The Barefoot Boy," or some other classic that is not in 
your school readers. You can find such selections as these 
among the publications of these firms. Hardly any parent 
will refuse to contribute a few cents for his child's reading, 
though he might object to purchasing an entire supple- 
mentary reader, costing, perhaps, 50 cents. Send at once 
for the catalogs of the following 

Publishers of Inexpensive Classics 

Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass., Riverside Literature 

Series. 
Educational Publishing Co., New York, 5 and 10 cent 

Classics. 
D. H. Knowlton & Co., Farmington, ]\Ie., 3 and 5 cent 

Classics. 
Orville Brewer Publishing Co., Chicago, Brewer's Classics. 
C. M. Parker, Taylorville, 111., Parker's Penny Classics. 

The principal objection to buying these inexpensive 
classics is that, being bound in paper, they are easily de- 
stroved. and that thev usuallv contain but a small amount 



270 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

of literature — often only one or two selections. If you 
can persuade the parents to spend the money, you .should 
get some supplementar}' readers for your pupils, instead of, 
or in addition to, the cheap classics. If the parents are unwill- 
ing to buy these supplementary books, or if your school offi- 
cers Avill not furnish you the money, perhaps you can use 
some of the money designed for library books. Whatever plan 
you adopt, he sure to have some supplementary readers. 
It is a burning shame to compel the children to read over 
and over selections from which they already have abstracted 
all the interest and emotion. You need supplementary 
readers in order to teach reading and in order to teach 
literature. By some means or other, supply your pupils 
with at least one reader in addition to the regular text. 
And when you do get this additional book, select one that 
is composed entirely of Literature. Here are some of the 
best series of books for supplementary work : 

Supplementary Literature Series 

The Heart of Oak Books, D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. 

Seven books, costing, respectively, 25c. 35c, 45c. 50c, 

55c. 60c. 65c. 
Reading-Literature, Row. Peterson & Co., Chicago. Primer 

and First. Second. Third and Fourth Readers, costing. 

respectively. 32c. 36c. 40c. 45c, and 50c. 
Elson's Grammar School Literature, Scott, Foresman & Co., 

New York. Four books for upper grades, costing, 

respectively, 50c. 50c. 60c. 60c. 
\Villiams' Choice Literature, American Book Co., Cincin- 
nati, O. Six books, costing, respectively, 22c, 25c, 28c, 

35c, 40c, 45c. 
An excellent collection of selections from American 
orations is the following: 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 271 

Brittain and Harris, Historical Reader for Schools, Amer- 
ican Book Co., Cincinnati, O.. 75c. 

This book is almost invaluable for correlating History and 

Literature. 

A good collection of memory gems is : 

Hix's Approved Selections for Reading and Memorizing, 
Hinds, Noble & Eldredge, New York. Eight books, 25c 
each. 

The fact that the selections in these books are for memo- 
rizing should not, of course, influence the teacher to assign 
selections for memorizing until they have been studied and 
appreciated in class. These books are similar to other books 
containing literary material, except that the selections are 
particularly good for storing away in the memory. 

On page 126 I spoke of the value of good pictures, both 
as agents for training the esthetic sense and as aids in 
teaching literature. Below I give a list of pictures which 
are excellent from both standpoints. The list was com- 
piled by experiments through three years in the County 
Training School of the Western Illinois State Normal 
School. Nearly all of these pictures can be obtained very 
cheaply from either The Perry Picture Co., Maiden, Mass., 
or from G. P. Brown & Co., Beverley, Mass. 

Breton — The Song of the Lark. 

Millet — The Gleaners, The Sower, Angelus, Feeding her 

Birds, The Rainbow. 
Landseer — Saved, Dignity and Impudence, Shoeing the Bay 

Mare, Kmg of the Forest. 
Corot — Spring, Landscape with Cottages, The Lake. 
Troyon — Return to the Farm, Evening in May. 
Bonheur — A Norman Sire, A Humble Servant. 
Dupre — The Balloon. 



ZU ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Herring — Three Members of a Temperance Society. 

Le Rolle — By the River, The Shepherdess. 

Ruysdael — Landscape with Windmill. 

Inness — Autumn Gold. 

Gorter — Fading Light of Day. 

Hobbema — Avenue of Trees. 

Constable — The Cornfield. 

Rieke — Sunset Glow. 

Zuber — September. 

Hunt — Deer by Moonlight. 

Hart — The Brookside. 

Davis — Close of Day. 

Douglas — Young England. 

Hovenden — Breaking Home Ties. 

Grueze — The Broken Pitcher. 

The above is only a partial list. The complete list can 
be found in Miss Mabel Carney's "Country Life and the 
Country School," pages 364-5. 

I have spoken (See page 38) of the desirability of the 
country teacher's dramatizing literature for the children to 
act. It is best, perhaps, for the teacher to make his own 
dramatizations ; but, since country teachers usually have 
had no experience in this sort of work, I mention two or 
three books that contain literary selections or well-known 
stories already dramatized. The country teacher should 
buy one or two of these volumes and have his pupils play 
the selections just as they are arranged ; then, after he and 
the pupils have had the benefit of this training, they can 
adapt some of the selections in their readers. Country chil- 
dren need this kind of work, both for the enjoyment it gives 
and for the assistance it renders in interpreting and appre- 
ciating literature. Some of the best volumes for the un- 
trained country teacher are the following: 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 273 

Dramatized Literature 

Cyr, Dramatic First Reader, Ginn & Co., New York, 30c. 
Johnson and Barnum, Book of Plays for Little- Actors, 

American Book Co., Cincinnati, 30c. 
Noyes and Ray, Little Plays for Little People, Ginn & Co., 

.35c. 
Stevenson, Children's Classics in Dramatic Form, Houghton, 

Mifflin Co., Boston, 50c. 
Gardner, Land of Make-Believe, Educational Publishing 

Co., New York, 40c. 

Little plays of the typ£ contained in these books are excel- 
lent to present at your literary society. In case, however, 
you wish to work up something more elaborate, either for 
literary society or for a school entertainment, you need to 
look elsewhere. Do not get some cheap book of shallow, 
silly dialogs : most of the so-called "Dialog Books" contain 
precisely that sort of stuff. Two volumes of the best kind 
of dialogs and plays I mention here. 

Literary Plays and Dialogs 

Gunnison, New Dialogues and Plays, Hinds, Noble & Eld- 

redge. New York. 
St. Nicholas Plays and Operettas, Century Co., New York. 

$1.00. 

In case you desire to give something yet more pretentious 
and ambitious, you will find the following plays excellent in 
every respect, and not too difficult : 

Alcott-Gould, Little Men Play, and Little Women Play, 
Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass., each, 50c. 

In case you have money enough to subscribe for some 
magazines, or in case you can persuade some generous citi- 



274 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

zen to contribute enough for this, by all means get some 
of those periodicals that will appeal to children — country 
children. If you have sufficient funds, get some of the 
news-magazines, like the "Outlook" or the "Independent" ; 
but do not spend the children's money on such periodicals 
(worthy though they be), until you have subscribed to the 
best childrein's magazines. So far as I know, there is no 
magazines designed for little country boys and girls ; but, 
since they are not designed for city boys and girls either, 
they are as suitable for the one as for the other. Here is a 
brief list, the best being starred : 

Periodicals for Country School Libraries 

*American Boy, Sprague Publishing Co., Detroit, Mich. 
$1 a year. 

*The Little Folks' Magazine, S. E. Cassino Co., Salem, 
Mass. $1 a year. 

*Rural Manhood, Y. M. C. A. International Committee, 
New York. $i a year. (This is for the older children. 
It is such an excellent magazine for country teachers 
that the teacher should subscribe for it, then lend the 
copy to the school.) 

*The Saint Nicholas, Century Co., New York. $3 a year. 
(This is an expensive magazine, but it is undoubtedly 
the very best children's magazine published. If you can 
afford it, subscribe, by all means.) 

Youth's Companion, Perry Mason Co., Boston. $2 a year. 
(A splendid weekly magazine, enjoyed both by children 
and adults. Perhaps some patron of your school is 
already a subscriber, and will lend his copy.) 

The country teacher must be a Story-teller. (See page 
243.) If you have had no experience in this art, so essential 
to good teaching, especially good primary teaching, you had 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 275 

best buy the two books listed below and study them care- 
fully ; then begin to train yourself. 

Books on vStory-Telling 

Bryant. How to Tell Stories to Children, Houghton, Mifflin 

Co., Boston. $1. 
Lyman, Story-Telling, A. C. McClurg, Chicago. 75c. 

In regard to the teaching of Spelling, I wish to recom- 
mend only one book : 

Suzzalo, The Teaching of Spelling. Teachers College. 
Columbia University, New York. Price 30c. 

With this inexpensive book and the suggestions I have 
already given in the chapter on Spelling, you can easily 
solve all the difficulties in this subject. 

Dictionaries 

The New International Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Co., 

Springfield, Mass. 
The Academic Dictionary, American Book Co., Cincinnati. 

$1.80. 

I list below three interesting books on Word Study. (See 
page 175.) For a satisfactory history of the English lan- 
guage and for other valuable information on various phases 
of our mother tongue, consult the introduction to the Inter- 
national Dictionary mentioned above. 

Books on Word Study 

Anderson. A Study of English Words, American Book Co., 

Cincinnati. 40c. 
Johnson, English Words, American Book Co., Cincinnati, 

84c. 



276 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Greenough and Kittredge, Words and their Ways in English 
Speech, Macmillan Co., New York, $i.io. 

On page i8o I have recorded my conviction that the 
country teacher should know Grammar, even though he 
should not attempt to teach it as a separate study. A very 
readable and instructive book on Grammar is: 

Leonard, Grammar and Its Reasons, A. S. Barnes Co., 
New York, $1.50. 

And if you wish to delve into a more difficult treatment of 
the same subject, you will find this book worth while: 
Sheffield; Grammar and Thinking, G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

Self -Education in Writing 

Perhaps self-education in Composition writing is the 
most difficult for a country teacher to acquire. It is almost 
essential that the teacher not only know how to teach the 
subject but that he be able to write good English. Nothing 
but training in writing will thoroughly equip a teacher to 
give instruction in writing; and self-training is the most 
difficult part in self -education. It can be done, however, 
as the experience of many authors proves. Read Frank- 
lin's Autobiography and observe how he acquired his 
style. A sentence or two from Robert Louis Stevenson's 
essay, "A College Magazine," will show how Stevenson 
worked — and Stevenson, it should be said, succeeded in 
acquiring a masterly style: "Whenever I read a book or a 
passage that particularly pleased me, in which a thing was 
said or an effect rendered with propriety, in which there 
was either some conspicuous force or some happy dis- 
tinction in the style, I must sit down at once and set myself 
to ape that quality. I was unsuccessful, and I knew it; 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 277 

and tried again, and was again unsuccessful and always 
unsuccessful; but at least in these vain bouts I got some 
practice in rhythm, in harmony, in construction and the 
co-ordination of parts." Almost all authors have had to 
practice in somewhat this way; almost all, from Shakes- 
peare to Hawthorne, have had to serve an apprenticeship 
to the master workmen of their craft. Of course, we 
teachers cannot hope to become great authors ; but there 
is no valid reason we cannot learn to write good English 
by following in the footsteps of those who have become 
great authors. 

The country teacher should practice writing. Perhaps 
you can form a partnership with a near-by teacher ; I have 
heard of teachers pairing off in this way, each writing one 
composition a week, then meeting on a certain evening and 
criticizing each other's production. Write an occasional 
article for the county paper or to some state educational 
journal; prepare papers for the district institute or the 
reading circle. Conduct a correspondence with some friend. 
Read much choice literature and try to imitate the fine 
passages. Consult the dictionary often. When you assign 
your children a subject for a composition, write a compo- 
sition yourself on the same subject. Get some supple- 
mentary language books and perform all the exercises called 
for there. Go to school to yourself — and don't play hookey. 
As you keep on writing and criticizing your work, you will 
improve in power to guide your pupils in their efforts, to 
say nothing of developing yourself in an art that will always 
be useful to you, in school or out. 

As you practice writing, study some good books on Com- 
position teaching. I suggest below three books the study 
of which will illuminate the whole subject of guidance and 
instruction in this important school activity. 



278 ^ ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

Books on Composition Telvching 

Clapp and Huston, Conduct of Composition Work in Gram- 
mar Schools, D. C. Heath & Co., Boston. 25c. (This is 
particularly valuable for upper grade work.) 

Spalding, Problem of Elementary Composition, D. C. 
Heath & Co., Boston, 40c. 

Taylor, Composition in the Elementary School, A. S. Barnes 
& Co., New York, 90c. 
A very useful pamphlet is 

Bulletin No, 490 of the United States Bureau of Education, 
Washington, D. C. : Teaching Language Through Agri- 
culture and Domestic Science. (This costs nothing and 
is worth a great deal to country teachers.) 

Conclusion 

These, then, are the best means by which the country 
teacher can educate himself : He can get the utmost possible 
benefit from institutes and teachers' gatherings, and from 
the district, county, and state superintendents ; he can 
study educational magazines ; he can keep a careful watch 
over his own teaching; he can use to advantage the state 
manual ; he can read good books — both literary and infor- 
mational. Some teachers enroll in correspondence schools 
and obtain excellent results, though English is the most 
difficult of all subjects to study by correspondence.* Other 
teachers attend summer terms at a Normal School or Col- 
lege — a most excellent plan, if the money can be spared. 

Adopt some of these means, or all of them ; but educate 
yourself. Any of them costs money, needless to say ; and, 
as I have already said, the countr}^ teacher cannot be 

* If any teacher is interested in Correspondence Schools, he 
should write to the State Superintendent or to the Bureau of Edu- 
cation at Washington, and learn what are the best schools of this 
kind in his territory. 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 279 

expected, on his present salary in most states, to pay out 
much for his education. But however small his salary, he 
owes it to himself and to the boys and girls he teaches to 
set aside some money for self-education. Use ten dollars 
a year to buy books — surely you can afford to do that; in 
a few years you will have a splendid library. You can 
depend upon this : every dollar you spend in self-education, 
genuine education, will pay for itself many times over, not 
only in dollars and cents but in the satisfaction that comes 
from greater efficiency and power. Educate yourself. 

A Hundred Books for a Rural School Library 

The list given on these pages makes no pretense of being 
complete — it is merely a hundred books that are especially 
suitable for a country school library. It does not include 
many vohimes that should be in the country school library : 
books on the various phases of Agriculture, etc.; and of 
course it does not exclude many books that are as valuable 
for city children as for their country cousins. It is not to 
be considered as a guide for selecting books except in this 
one particular : every book in the list is excellent for country 
children. 

I have given the publisher and price of almost every 
volume, that the list may be as convenient as possible. In 
those instances in which the publisher and price is not 
given, the book can be obtained from any one of several 
firms. 

Any attempt to classify children's books accurately is 
frustrated by the fact that some books do not belong exclu- 
sively to any one type. The classification I have attempted 
aims merely at reasonable accuracy; I have not been, nor 
should the teacher be, disturbed by the bugbear of scientific 
nomenclature. If a book makes its appeal as a fairy story, 
it makes little difference whether it be a nursery tale, a 



280 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

folk-story, or a wonder book. In general, however, I have 
tried to carry out the classification made in Chapters Two 
and Three, though that classification is intended to apply only 
to selections studied in class. The figures placed before the 
titles show for what grades the books are most suitable. 

Primers and Readers 

I Blaisdell, Boy Blue and His Friends, Little, Brown & 
Co., Boston, 6oc. 
I — 2 Free and Treadwell, Reading — Literature, Primer, 
First and Second Readers, Row, Peterson & Co., 
Chicago, 32c, 36c, 40c. 
I Grover, Outdoor Primer, Rand, IMclSTally & Co., 
New York, 25c. 
• I Grover, Sunbonnet Babies Primer, Rand, ]\IcNally & 
Co., New York, 40c. 
I — 2 Lucia, Peter and Polly, American Book Co., Cin- 
cinnati, 35c. 

Fables 

2 — 4 -F^sop's Fables. Ginn & Co., New York, 35c. 

Letters 

5 — 7 Tappan, Letters from Colonial Children, Houghton 
j\Iifflin Co., Boston, $1.50. 

Fairy Stories and Wonder Tales 

5 — 6 Arabian Nights, Ginn & Co., New York, 45c. 

3 — 5 Anderson — Fairy Tales. 

4 — 6 Carroll — "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and 

"Through the Looking Glass," IMacmillan Co., 

New York, $1.25. 
4 — 5 Collodi — Adventures of Pinocchio, Ginn & Co., New 

York, 40c. 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 281 

3 — 5 Craik — Adventures of a Brownie, Educational Pub- 
lishing Co.. New York, 40c. 

2 — 4 Thomsen — East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon, 
Row, Peterson & Co., Chicago, 60c. 

3 — 5 Grimm — Fairy Tales. 

2 — 4 Ingelow — Three Fairy Tales, D. C. Heath, Boston, 
20c. 

4 — 6 Jacobs — English Fairy Tales, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 
New York, $1.25. 

4 — 5 Kingsley — Water Babies, Ginn & Co., New York, 
35c. 

5 — 6 Kipling — Just So Stories, Doubleday, Page & Co., 
New York, $1.20. 

4 — 5 Lang — Green Fairy Book, A. L. Burt, Chicago, $1.00. 

6 — 8 MacDonald — Princess and the Goblin, J. B, Lippin- 
cott, Philadelphia, $1.00. 

2 — 3 Perrault — Tales of Mother Goose, D. C. Heath & 
Co., Boston, 20c. 

5 — 6 Ruskin — King of the Golden River, D. C. Heath & 
Co., Boston, 20c. 

5 — 8 Swift — Gulliver's Travels, D. C. Heath & Co., Bos- 
ton, 30c. 

6 — 8 Thackeray — Rose and the Ring, D. C. Heath & Co., 
Boston, 25c. 

4 — 5 Raspe — Travels of Munchausen, D. C. Heath & Co., 
Boston, 20c. 

Animal and Nature Stories 

4 — 6 Andrews — Stories Mother Nature Told, Ginn & Co., 

New York, 50c. 
4 — 6 Ariel — Those Dreadful Mouse Boys, Ginn & Co., 

New York, 80c. 



282 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

6 — 7 Brown — Rab and His Friends. 

3-^5 Fox — Farmer Brown and the Birds, L. C. Page & 

Co., New York, 50c. 
5 — 8 Harris — Nights with Uncle Remus, Houghton Mif- 
flin, Boston, $1.50. 
5 — 7 Jefferies — Sir Bevis, Ginn & Co., New York, 30c. 
2 — 3 Johonnot — Book of Cats and Dogs, American Book 

Co., Cincinnati, 20c. 
7 — 8 Keffer — Nature Studies on the Farm, American 

Book Co., Cincinnati, 40c. 
5 — 6 Kipling — Jungle Book, Century Co., New York, 

$1.50. 
6 — 8 Long — Wood Folk at School, Ginn & Co., New York, 

50c. 
6 — 8 Long — Little Brother to the Bear, Ginn & Co., New 

York, 50c. 
2 — 4 Pitre — The Swallow Book, American Book Co., 

Cincinnati. 
I — 2 Potter — Tale of Peter Rabbit, Frederick Warne & 

Co., New York, 50c. 
3 — 5 Pyle — Stories of Humble Friends, American Book 

Co., Cincinnati, 50c. 
2 — 3 de Segur — Story of a Donkey, D. C. Heath & Co., 

Boston, 20c. 
6 — 8 Seton — Lives of the Hunted, Charles Scribner's 

Sons, New York, $1.75. 
5 — 7 Seton — Wild Animals I Have Known, Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons, New York, $2.00. 
4 — 6 Sewell — Black Beauty. 
2 — 3 Trimmer — History of the Robins, D. C. Heath & 

Co., Boston, 20c. 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 283 

Myths and Legends 

7 — 8 Hawthorne — "Wonder Book" and "Tanglewood 

Tales." 
7 — 8 Kingsley — Greek Heroes. 
7 — 8 Lamb — Adventures of Ulysses, D. C. Heath & Co., 

Boston, 25c. 
5 — 8 Pyle — Some Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, 

Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 50c. 
7 — 8 Pyle — Stories of King Arthur and His Knights, 

Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, $2.50. 

Stories (Unclassified) 

6—S Alcott — Little Women, Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 

$1.50. 
7—8 Alcott— Old Fashioned Girl, Little Brown & Co., 

Boston, $1.50. 
3 — 6 Baldwin — Don Quixote for Young People, American 

Book Co., Cincinnati, 50c. 
5 — 7 Bunyan — The Pilgrim's Progress. 
7 — 8 Cooper — Last of the Mohicans. 
7 — 8 Crockett — Red Cap Tales, Macmillan Co., New 

York, 50c. 
5 — 7 Defoe — Robinson Crusoe. 
4 — 7 Eggleston — Hoosier School Boy, Charles Scribner's 

Sons, New York, 50c. 
7 — 8 Hale — Man without a Country. 
4 — 6 Hawthorne — Little Daffydowndilly, etc., Houghton 

Mifflin Co., Boston, 40c. 
3 — 4 Hopkins — The Sandman : His Farm Stories, L. C. 

Page & Co., New York, $1.50. 
7 — 8 Lamb — Tales from Shakespeare. 
4 — 6 Pyrnell — Diddie, Dumps, and Tot, Harper & Bro., 

New York, 60c. 



284 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

3 — 4 Richards — Five-Minute Stories, Dana Estes & Co., 
Boston, $1.25. 

7 — 8 Stevenson — Treasure Island. 

7 — 8 Stevenson — Kidnapped. 

7 — 8 Twain — Huckleberry Finn, Harper & Bros., New 
York, $1.75. 

6 — 8 Twain — Prince and the Pauper, Harper & Bros., 
New York, $1.75. 

6—8 Smith — Jolly Good Times, Little, Brown & Co., 
Boston, $1.25. 

6 — 8 Smith — Four on a Farm, Little, Brown & Co., Bos- 
ton, $1.50. 

Biography 

7—8 Abbott— Daniel Boone, Dodd, Mead & Co., New 
York, $1.25. 
8 Franklin — Autobiography. 

Stories and Sketches of Country and Village Life 

3 — 4 Abbott — The Boy on a Farm, American Book Co., 

Cincinnati, 45c. 
7 — 8 Aldrich — Story of a Bad Boy, Houghton, Mifflin Co., 

Boston, 70c. 
3 — 4 Bradish — Stories of Country Life, American Book 
Co., Cincinnati, 40c. 
8 Howell — A Boy's Town, Harper & Bros., New York, 

$1.25. 
8 Illinois Girl — A Prairie Winter, Macmillan Co., New 

York, 50c. 
8 Rogers — Journal of a Country Womafi, Eaton & 
Mains, New York, $1.25. 



MEANS OF SELF-EDUCATION 285 

6 — 8 Twain — Tom Sawyer, Harper & Bros., New York, 

6 — 8 Wallace — Uncle Henry's Letters to the Farm Bov, 

jNIacmillan Co., New York, 50c. 
7 — 8 A\'arner — Being a Boy. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 

60c. 



Poetry 

7 — 8 Bates — Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims, Rand, ]\Ic- 

Nally & Co., New York, 40c. 
3 — 8 Chisholm — The Golden Staircase, G. P. Putnaiu's 

Sons. New York, $1.00. 
I — 4 Hazard — Three Years with the Poets, Houghton 

INIifflin Co., Boston, 50c. 
7 — 8 Henley — Lyra Heroica, Charles Scribner's Sons, New* 

York, $1.25. 
5 — 7 Longfellow — Hiawatha, Houghton IMifflin Co., Bos- 
ton, 40c. 
3 — 6 Lovejoy — Nature in ^"erse, Silver, Burdett & Co., 

New York, 60c. 
5 — 7 Lucas — Book of ^"erses for Children, Henry Llolt & 

Co., New York, $1.00. 
7 — 8 Macaiday — Lays of Ancient Rome. 
6 — 8 Montgomery — Heroic Ballads, Ginn & Co., New 

York, 50c. 
7 — 8 Repplier — Book of Famous Verse, Houghton, j\Iif- 

f\'m Co., Boston, 75c. 
4 — 6 Riley — Book of Joyous Children, Chai^les Scribner's 

Sons, New York, $1.20. 
2 — 5 Rossetti — Sing-Song, Educational Publishing Co., 

New York, 40c. 
7 — 8 Scott — Lady of the Lake. 



286 ENGLISH IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

2 — 5 Sherman — Little Folk Lyrics, Houghton Mifflin Co., 

Boston, 6oc. 
2 — 5 Stevenson — Child's Garden of Verses. 
3 — 6 Taylor Sisters' Poems, Frederick Stokes & Co., New 

York, $1.50. 
6 — 8 Thatcher — The Listening Child, Macmillan Co., New 

York, 50c. 

Nonsense Poetry 

6 — 8 Carroll — Hunting of the Snark, Harper & Bros., New 

York, 60c. 
I — 2 Greenaway — Mother Goose, Frederick Warne & Co., 

New York, 60c. 
5 — 7 Lear — Nonsense Book, Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 

$2.00. 
3 — 5 Wells — The Jingle Book, Macmillan Co., New York, 

50c. 



With the 

Reading-Literature Series 

(FREE AND TREADWELL) 

Little Children Learn to Read 
With Ease and Delight 

The Primer is still the only all literature basal beginning 
reader published. It contains 9 favorite folk tales, in real 
literature, yet so simple that the children read a genuine 
story the first week. 

There are 96 exquisite three-color illustrations. 

The First Reader continues these delightful folk stories 
and includes also 33 rhymes and short poems with 56 three- 
color illustrations. 

The Second Reader might be called the "Fairy Story 
Reader," there being 16 good long folk-fairy stories ; but 
there are also 12 fables and 34 poems. 58 colored pictures. 

The Third Reader is the "Wonder Story Book"; e. g., 
Arabian Nights, Alice in Wonderland, The Snow Image, 
Water Babies. There are also several good animal stories, 
and delightful poems from Stevenson, Field, Lucy Larcom, 
Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll and others. 48 three-color 
pictures. 

The first three books are on the West Virginia State list 
at special prices. Don't think your school can't afford them ; 
it can't afford to do without them. 

Row, Peterson & Co. 

Chicago NewYork 



Price List of Publications 


Essential Studies in English, Sodhins and liotc. 

Book I, Language, 29-± pp $0.45 

Book II, Grammar and Composition, 336 pp. .60 


Practical English, A. C. Scoit, 208 pp 


.45 


Manual of the Principles of English 

Form and Diction, Fansler 


.10 


Exercises in English Form and Diction, for 
Study and Practice, Fansler and Fansler. . . 


.60 


The National Speller, C. B. Frazier 


.20 
.50 


Phonology and Orthoepy, Salisbury 


Elementary Agriculture with Practical 

Arithmetic, Hatch and Hasehcood 


.60 


The Educational Meaning of Manual Arts and 
Industries, E. K. Bow, 250 pp 


1.25 


Methods of Teaching, Charters 


1.25 


Principles of Teaching, N. A. Harvey, 450 pp. . 


1.25 


The Theory of Teaching and Elementary 

Psychology, Salisbury 


1.25 


Beading in Public Schools, Briggs 4' Coffman. . . . 


1.25 


Country Life and the Country School, Carney. . . . 


1.25 


English in the Country School, Barnes 


1.25 


The Personality of the Teacher, McKenny 


1.00 


School Management, Salisbury 


1.00 


Index to Short Stories, Salisbury and- Beclcwith . . 


.50 


Balonglong, the Igorot Boy, Jenks 


.45 


East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon, Thomsen 


.60 


The Eeading Literature Primer. Free and Tread- 
well 


.32 
.36 


Eeading-Literature, First Eeader 


Eeading-Literature, Second Eeader 


.40 
.45 
.50 


Eeading-Literature, Third Eeader 


Eeading-Literature, Fourth Eeader 


Row, Peterson & Company 


Chicago New York 1 



JUL 23 1918 



